UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN, 1911: NO. 4 WHOLE NUMBER 450 



REPORT OF THE 
COMMISSION APPOINTED TO STUDY THE 
SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN THE PUB- 
LIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE 
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303 





WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

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UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN, 191 1 1 NO. 4 WHOLE NUMBER 450 



REPORT OF THE 
COMMISSION APPOINTED TO STUDY THE 
SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN THE PUB- 
LIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE 





WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1911 



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COITEITS 



Page. 

Letter of transmittal 5 

Members of the commission 6 

Letter to the Board of School Commissioners — Summary 7 

Chapter I. — History and Method of the Study 16 

The appointment, organization, and work of the commission 16 

Limits of the study 18 

The method of the study 20 

Chapter II. — Preliminary Topics 22 

The recent history of city school systems 22 

History of the Baltimore system and general statistics of the city of Balti- 
more 24 

The legal basis of the system 28 

Financial support of the system 33 

Scope and organization of the system 44 

Chapter III. — The Main Topics of this Report, relating to training and instruc- 
tion in elementary day schools 48 

A. The system of supervision 48 

Conditions in the past 48 

Present policy and practice 49 

Criticism 51 

Recommendations 53 

B. The teaching force and its training 55 

Conditions in the past 55 

City training schools 55 

Admission to the eligible list 57 

Promotional examinations 57 

Criticism and recommendations 59 

Character of the teaching in general 62 

C. The elementary school curriculum 63 

Historical summary 63 

Methods employed in making course of study 64 

Time allotments 65 

Subjects in detail: 

The language, or English, group 66 

Mathematics 71 

Geography 78 

Nature study 82 

History 83 

Drawing 84 

Physiology and hygiene 84 

Conduct of instruction 87 

Teaching method 88 

Sectional teaching 88 

Coeducation of the sexes 90 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

Chapter IV.— Subsidiary Topics. Page 

The school plant 92 

The attendance of pupils 92 

The health of pupils 100 

The control and discipline of pupils 101 

Chapter V. — Additional Views and Suggestions. 

General considerations 102 

Supplementary suggestions 106 

Index Ill 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, June 20, 1911. 

Sir: On the 7th of February of this year I addressed to the 
Secretary of the Interior the following letter: 

"I have the honor to transmit herewith a communication from 
the chairman of the committee on rules of the board of school com- 
missioners of Baltimore city, informing me of the action of that 
board in providing for the appointment of a commission to investi- 
gate and report upon the system of education now in force in the 
public schools of that city, and requesting me to become the chair- 
man of such commission. I would respectfully request your opinion 
as to the question whether I may properly accept this invitation. 

"I may say that, on careful consideration of this communication 
from the Baltimore board of school commissioners, my own judgment 
inclines strongly to the view that the proposal is in accord with the 
statutory functions of the Commissioner of Education, and that the 
rendering of such service as is requested is one of the ways in which 
this office can most effectively collect 'such statistics and facts as 
would show the condition and progress of education' and diffuse 
'such information respecting the organization and management of 
schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid 
the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance 
of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of 
education throughout the country.' I am accordingly disposed to 
accept the invitation if in your opinion I may properly do so. It 
is understood that I could not accept compensation from the school 
authorities of Baltimore for any such service, nor receive from them 
any payment other than a reasonable allowance for personal expense 
incurred in making the inquiry." 

This letter was returned to me with the following indorsement : 

"Approved February 8, 1911. 

"Such engagement not to interfere with the official duties of the 

commissioner. 

"R. A. Ballinger, Secretary." 

5 



6 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 

The work of the commission referred to has now been completed 
and its report is ready for publication. This report, in the prepara- 
tion of which the commission has been largely assisted by the staff of 
two divisions of this bureau, is mainly concerned with a comparison 
of the Baltimore system of education with the systems found in others 
of our greater American cities. It seems to me that it will accordingly 
be of very general interest to educational authorities and students of 
education throughout the country. I beg, therefore, to recommend 
that it be published as one number of the bulletin of the Bureau of 
Education, and have the honor to transmit the manuscript herewith 
for such publication. 

Very respectfully, Elmer Ellsworth Brown, 

Commissioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 



THE COMMISSION. 

Members: 

Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Commissioner of Education of the United 
States, Washington, chairman of the commission. 

Ellwood P. Cubberley, professor of the theory and history of educa- 
tion in the Leland Stanford Junior University. 

Calvin N. Kendall, superintendent of schools, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Assistants: 

Milo B. Hillegas, chief of the editorial division, Bureau of Education, 
Washington, secretary of the commission. 

Harlan Updegraff, chief of the division or school administration. 
Bureau of Education, Washington. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION APPOINTED TO 
STUDY THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN THE 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE. 



LETTER TO THE BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 

Baltimore, Md., June 1, 1911. 
The Board of School Commissioners. 

Gentlemen: Your commission appointed to inquire into the sys- 
tem of instruction in the public schools of Baltimore has the honor 
to present herewith a report of such inquiry. In so doing, we beg to 
call attention at the outset to those observations and recommenda- 
tions which seem to us of chief importance. This letter accordingly 
presents the main outcome of our inquiry. The subjects here men- 
tioned are discussed at greater length in the pages which follow, 
along with many others which have seemed to us worthy of 
consideration. 

It will be remembered that the commission was charged with an 
inquiry touching only the educational side of the city school system. 
The business side has received notice only in so far as has seemed 
necessary to an understanding of the system of instruction. On the 
educational side, too, those topics have received chief attention which 
have appeared to be of chief significance in the Baltimore situation, 
leaving other important topics for only incidental treatment. An 
exhaustive study of so large a system of schools would have required 
a much longer time than that which we have had at our disposal. As 
it is, some parts of our work have had to be done too hastily. Join 
to this the fact that we have had to proceed with no well-defined 
precedents for our guidance, and it will appear that there is some 
ground for indulgence if defects are found in our report. 

It should be added, however, that within reasonable limits every 
effort has been put forth to make this inquiry thoroughgoing and 
comprehensive. At our request, the time originally proposed for its 
completion has been extended by some weeks. The members of the 
commission and their assistants have given close personal attention 
to the matters coming under consideration, having spent much time 
in Baltimore for this purpose and having made many comparisons 
with the educational systems of other cities. The methods which we 
have pursued are described more particularly on pages 20-21 of this 
report. 



8 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

In arriving at conclusions and making recommendations, our aim 
has been, as far as possible, to avoid presenting mere opinions of our 
own, and to set forth instead conclusions drawn from the most fruit- 
ful experience of other American cities. 

SUMMARY. 

(1) As regards the outward organization of its educational affairs, 
under the charter of 1898, Baltimore shows elements both of strength 
and of weakness. On the whole, however, the school provisions of 
that charter are of the better class, and offer a reasonable opportunity 
for effective school administration. We have received from many 
sources the information that under the earlier form of organization, 
with a large board of school commissioners elected by wards, the 
school affairs of the city were involved in local and partisan politics. 
There is abundant evidence that conditions have changed for the 
better under the charter provisions now in force. It would carry us 
beyond the proper scope of this report to point out particulars in 
which those provisions might still be improved. But what is of 
chief importance here is that we call attention to the danger, always 
present, even under improved forms of administration, of a return 
to pernicious political conditions. The health of a system of schools 
depends upon the fidelity of that system to the interests of the whole 
community, quite apart from private and factional interests. To 
keep the schools on this high plane of public service, above all 
partisanship, is the first concern of those charged with their adminis- 
tration. 

(2) The expenditures for education in the city of Baltimore are rel- 
atively low. It is to be remembered when adverse criticism is pre- 
sented in this report that the operations under review have been con- 
ducted on a comparatively narrow allowance of public funds. At 
certain points, chiefly those touching supervision, the salaries of 
teachers, and elementary school buildings, the recommendations 
which we present involve an increase of expenditures. We have, 
however, refrained from suggesting any increase which would carry 
the expenditures for the school department of Baltimore above the 
expenditures for the schools of other cities of approximately the same 
population, or above the average per capita expenditures for educa- 
tion in the larger cities of this country. 

(3) The net result of our inquiry into the system of education is an 
opinion favorable to that system. While we find much to criticize 
adversely, we have taken into account the historical development of 
the system and its very moderate cost at the present time. In view 
of these considerations, we are justified in rendering a report which, 
in its main outlines, is positively favorable. With reference to any 



SUMMARY. 9 

school system the important thing is not so much the question, 
What is its present status % as that other question, Is it moving in the 
right direction ? It is clear to us that, under the charter of 1898, in 
spite of certain particulars in which changes are still called for, the 
general movement in Baltimore has been unmistakably in the direc- 
tion of improvement. We have, in fact, been repeatedly struck with 
admiration for progress which has been made in the face of more than 
ordinary difficulties. 

It seems to us that this forward movement in Baltimore has been 
checked of late by those controversies which are a matter of common 
knowledge. The many personal bearings of such controversies, 
which apparently constitute a considerable element in the actual 
situation, lie outside of the field of this inquiry, and your commission 
has endeavored to keep entirely clear of all such considerations. 
We have become convinced, however, that an urgent need of the 
school system is the united support of the community. The aims 
and plans of the school authorities, as well as the measure of success 
that has thus far been attained in carrying those purposes into effect, 
are worthy of the confidence of the people of Baltimore. Such rec- 
ommendations as are made independently in this report are found to 
be in general accord with the present policies of the school adminis- 
tration and point in the direction of a rational development of those 
policies. 

Some measure of difference of opinion respecting any school sys- 
tem is always to be expected. When controversy becomes embit- 
tered, however, it not only arrests the progress of improvements and 
accentuates reactionary tendencies, but in particular it increases the 
danger that the schools will be brought into political entanglements. 
We call repeated attention to this danger, because we believe it is a 
vital consideration in any public-school system. 

(4) In its general scope the school system calls for approval. 
Expenditures have been concentrated upon what may be called the 
central core of the system, the ordinary elementary and high schools, 
and very little has gone to extensions and appendages of the school 
system. We do not commend the Baltimore system for the rela- 
tively slight attention which it has devoted to the so-called "wider 
uses of the school plant," but we do regard it as good judgment on 
the part of the school authorities that, so long as the funds available 
for the schools have been relatively low, they should have been 
employed for ordinary school purposes. 

In the time at our disposal, it has been impossible to make any 
examination of the City College, the high schools, and the Polytechnic 
Institute. We have visited a number of the schools for colored 
people, but have been unable to give attention to the special ques- 
tions which relate to such schools. 



10 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

Within the scope of the ordinary elementaiy schools, important 
provision has been made for variety in the instruction and training 
offered, to meet the various needs of pupils. We refer particularly 
to the variety of needs which grows out of a variety of abilities. 
We know of no system of schools in which better provision is made 
for pupils of more than ordinary ability than that which Baltimore 
offers in the so-called preparatory classes. After observing these 
classes and considering the arguments concerning them, both pro 
and con, we are unanimous in regarding them as among the best 
features of the Baltimore system. The provision which is made for 
backward pupils and for pupils who are hard to govern, as well as 
for habitual truants, calls in the main for decided commendation. 

One provision which has been a subject of controversy should be 
mentioned here, namely, that relating to the so-called sectional 
teaching. This is an arrangement by which, in a portion of their 
studies, the pupils under one teacher are not taught as a single class 
but are divided into two groups. The arguments for and against this 
practice have been admirably summed up in the superintendent's 
annual report of the New York City schools for the year 1910 (see 
Appendix A). We agree with Supt. Maxwell in his favorable judg- 
ment regarding the group or sectional plan. We have found in 
different schools in Baltimore a wide divergence among teachers and 
principals in their understanding of the present requirements as to 
sectional teaching. It would seem to us probable that the opposi- 
tion to that system would disappear if the regulations, both nominal 
and implied, were more generally understood. This is one point 
out of many in which we have found a larger provision for school 
supervision desirable. 

(5) The system of school supervision has received particular atten- 
tion. We regard the supervision of schools as a means of helping the 
class teachers and increasing their efficiency. Where the super- 
visory force is small the members of the board of superintendents 
can meet the individual teachers only at long intervals, and super- 
vision must be too largely carried on through general orders and di- 
rections. These are liable to misunderstanding. As a consequence 
supervision by a small staff of superintendents is sometimes felt as 
repressive and onerous, where supervision directed to the same ends 
by a fairly large and efficient staff would be found altogether helpful. 
In comparison with other cities Baltimore appears to be provided 
with an insufficient corps of supervisory officers. 

At the time of its adoption, the division of the schools into groups, 
each of which was placed in charge of a group principal, was mani- 
festly a wise and useful arrangement. It still serves a useful purpose, 
and we recommend that it be modified only by a gradual process. 
It provides for supervision by " vertical" divisions; that is, one 



SUMMARY. 11 

group, embracing all of the elementary grades from the first to the 
eighth, under a single head, stands side by side with a similar group, 
and the same arrangement is repeated throughout the city. This 
system is supplemented with supervision by "horizontal" divisions, 
as in the case of certain special subjects, music, drawing, and others, 
the supervisor of instruction in one of these subjects having relations 
with the teachers in all of the groups so far as they are concerned 
with teaching that subject. We recommend an increase in the 
amount of such " horizontal" supervision. Whether by special sub- 
jects or by certain grades in the schools or by any other convenient 
arrangement, such supervision should bind the different groups to- 
gether in a common understanding of a common work. 

This will involve a moderate increase in the number of assistant 
superintendents or of supervisors in special subjects or of both. It 
is of the utmost importance that the city should secure for such 
positions the persons best equipped, by native endowment and by 
professional training and experience, that can be had in any part of 
this country. 

With the development of such a supervisory body it may be found 
desirable to replace the group-principal system with provision for a 
supervising principal in each school building. Such a change, how- 
ever, must depend in many instances upon the erection of large 
schoolhouses in place of the small and unsuitable buildings which 
are now in common use. 

(6) As regards the teaching staff, there are aspects of the situation 
in Baltimore which call for careful consideration. Under existing 
charter provisions the teachers have permanent tenure of their posi- 
tions. While they may be dismissed for cause, the prescribed pro- 
cedure is such as to render dismissal practically impossible save in 
extreme cases. Such an arrangement has its advantages, particularly 
when it protects a sifted body of trained and competent teachers. 
Here it has been applied to a body of teachers the great majority of 
whom were appointed to positions in the school department under 
the conditions obtaining before the present charter provisions went 
into effect, and upon a requirement of only the most meager 
preparation. 

The teaching body as we have seen it, even leaving out of account 
those members appointed under the requirements now in force, is 
much better than those earlier requirements might lead one to expect. 
We have seen teachers in Baltimore whose work would rank with the 
best with which we are familiar, and we are glad to pay honor to the 
service they are rendering. But alongside of much that is good and 
some of it extremely good, there is much that we should regard as 
poor and much more that, at best, is of mediocre quality. In this 
matter, it is not sufficient to have a high average, the low grade of 



12 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

efficiency at one point being offset by a high grade of efficiency at 
another point. The pupils under the teacher of low efficiency are 
not helped by the fact that there is high efficiency somewhere else. 
It is a high general level of efficiency that the school administration 
must seek to establish and maintain. It has seemed to us that much 
of the complaint which has come from the parents of school children 
in Baltimore is caused by the imperfect work of the weaker members 
of the teaching force, who are practically secure in their positions, 
under the conditions referred to above. 

It is not to be forgotten that what is needed in a modern teaching 
body is not only efficiency but progressive efficiency. The require- 
ments in teaching are changing from year to yeai\as are the require- 
ments in other fields of activity. A body of public-school teachers 
should be so well trained, both professionally and in general, that 
they can carry forward a program of continuous educational 
improvement. 

So far as the future is concerned, this requirement is fairly well 
met by the higher standard which has been set for entrance upon a 
teaching position, and by provision for the preparation of teachers in 
city training schools. As was noted above, the more efficient of 
the teachers appointed in earlier years are doing good work. The 
problem which has confronted the educational authorities has been 
that of raising the general level and of raising the minimum level of 
the less progressive and efficient portion of the corps of teachers. 

Closely connected with this problem is the question concerning 
the salaries of the teachers. We have no hesitation in expressing the 
opinion, based on the experience of other cities, that the present 
scale of salaries is too low. This seems to us so clear as to call for no 
extended discussion at this point. 

The commission regards promotional examinations as a proper and 
serviceable method looking to the improvement of a body of teachers, 
many of whom are below a reasonable standard for the present day 
as regards general and professional education. It is not the only 
method to that end, but is probably as effective, under ordinary 
circumstances, as any that might be employed. We see no reason 
accordingly to condemn the system in principle. The real question 
regarding its employment in Baltimore seems to us merely the prac- 
tical question as to how far it can be made to work. The fact that a 
majority of the Baltimore teachers are opposed to it and that this 
opposition has produced something like a deadlock, in that many of 
the teachers have even sacrificed a chance for an increase of salary 
rather than take the examinations, seems to us, accordingly, to present 
not so much a question of principle as a question whether better 
results can be secured by a modification of the method. 



SUMMARY. 13 

There is, however, a fundamental principle back of the whole 
matter, and that is the principle that, for the good of the whole people, 
the teaching force of the city should be made as effective as possible. 
It seems to us that the educational authorities of the city, on the one 
hand, and those teachers who are opposed to the promotional exami- 
nations, on the other hand, agreeing upon this fundamental principle, 
should come to agreement as to the methods of carrying it into effect; 
and that on both sides there should be a readiness to make some con- 
cessions with a view to such agreement. It is reasonable to expect 
that such agreement may be reached when both sides are seeking the 
same end, and it is worth while to make every effort to accomplish this 
result. Failing in that, the board of school commissioners, in whom 
the legal responsibility for the conduct of the schools is reposed, 
should adopt and carry into effect such regulations as may seem to 
them to meet the case; and in so doing they should have the general 
support of the community and the support of the teachers themselves. 

Various circumstances combine to give to the training school for 
white teachers a position of unusual influence in the school system. 
This is a situation which has been turned to the advantage of the 
schools in a variety of ways, and can be made of still greater advan- 
tage. As soon as practicable the training school should be ade- 
quately housed and equipped. Its management and that of the 
corresponding school for colored teachers, together with the oversight 
of the work of substitute and probationary teachers, might with 
profit be unified and given a large place in a general plan for the more 
adequate supervision of the schools. 

(7) One striking instance has come to our notice in which the Balti- 
more teachers have been individually consulted regarding an important 
question of general policy, in cooperation with the supervisory officers 
and the staff of the training school for white teachers. That is in the 
framing of the present courses of study. While many criticisms of 
these courses have appeared, we find on careful comparison that they 
do not differ greatly from the courses now followed in others of our large 
American cities. On the whole, the Baltimore courses appear from 
such comparison to be moderately conservative. They devote some- 
what more than the average time to the old and universally recog- 
nized subjects of instruction, including reading, writing, and arith- 
metic. Certain minor particulars are noted in which they seem to 
deviate unduly from the general practice of the present time, as in 
the relatively large amount of time devoted to the study of common 
fractions. The changes which have been made in these courses in 
recent years do not seem to have been more numerous or extensive 
than those which have been made in other cities. 

About an average amount of experimentation with new plans and 
materials, as well as new methods, has taken place, and the general 



14 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

trend in these changes and experiments has not varied greatly from 
that in the country at large. This is well illustrated in the case of 
English grammar, concerning which there has been adverse criticism. 
The formal study of this subject has changed in Baltimore very 
much as it has changed in other American cities. That is, it has here 
as elsewhere come more and more to be restricted to the upper gram- 
mar grades. 

Nearly a generation ago Baltimore was among the first of American 
cities to introduce manual training into the schools. The time now 
devoted to such training is not unreasonable in amount, being only a 
little above the average for the larger American cities. As yet Balti- 
more has made only a slight beginning in the more strictly industrial 
training. We regard it as desirable that experimentation in this 
difficult and important branch of the newer education should be 
carried steadily forward, but not too rapidly for a careful appraise- 
ment of results and methods. 

(8) With occasional exceptions we have found the order and gov- 
ernment of the schools deserving commendation. We should judge 
from what we have seen that the ordinary and traditional relations 
between pupils and teachers are good. We can not pass an opinion, 
from personal observation, upon the more difficult and critical 
aspects of the government of the schools, inasmuch as the most 
troublesome pupils seldom show their worst side when visitors are 
present. On general principles we should not advise the restoration 
of the rod as a means of discipline. It may, however, be found advis- 
able to make its use permissive, under proper safeguards, in the rooms 
provided for pupils who are more than ordinarily hard to govern, 
where it may offer one more "last resort" in dealing with really 
insubordinate pupils. Even if its use should be permitted in these 
special rooms, the best teachers of such classes would have recourse 
to it but rarely. 

The subject of coeducation of boys and girls has not, so far as we 
can learn, aroused such serious question in other cities as has recently 
been raised in Baltimore. The preponderance of American opinion 
seems to be very markedly on the side of coeducation in both primary 
and grammar schools. In the absence of any well-ascertained infor- 
mation which would show plainly that coeducation in these grades 
presents fewer advantages and greater evils than separate education, 
we can not advise the transformation of the mixed schools into schools 
in which the sexes are separated. Public schools of both types exist 
in Baltimore to-day. Considerable expense would undoubtedly be 
involved in the attempt to reduce all of these to the one type of the 
school in which boys and girls are separated, and such expenditure 
must inevitably delay improvement in other directions where the need 
of change is more manifest. 



SUMMARY. 15 

(9) Finally, attention should be called to the unsatisfactory condi- 
tion of many of the schoolhouses. Baltimore is not the only city that 
is at fault in this respect, and the newer schoolhouses of Baltimore 
mark a great improvement over the old. We should not be excusable, 
however, if we failed to call attention to the serious condition of many 
of the older buildings as regards danger from fire and their unsuitable 
and insanitary character in general. 

The commission has been harmonious throughout, and it presents 
a unanimous report. With only negligible exceptions we have been 
treated with the utmost courtesy by all of those with whom we have 
had to do in the course of this inquiry. We desire to return our 
thanks for all of these courtesies. On our own part we have endeav- 
ored to give full and impartial consideration to all information and 
suggestions which have come to us, ' from whatever source. It has 
been our single purpose to aid the city of Baltimore, as represented 
by its board of school commissioners, in the effort to make the city 
system of schools as efficient as possible. We have become con- 
vinced that a highly efficient system may be built up, from the 
beginnings already made, by measures of constructive improvement, 
such as we have outlined in part, rather than by any revolutionary 
procedure. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Elmer Ellsworth Brown, 
Ellwood P. Cubberley, 
Calvin N. Kendall, 

Commission. 



CHAPTER I. 
HISTORY AND METHOD OF THE STUDY. 
THE APPOINTMENT, ORGANIZATION, AND WORK OF THE COMMISSION. 

On January 25, 1911, the board of school commissioners of the 
city of Baltimore adopted the following resolution: 

"Whereas the committee on rules, curriculum, and textbooks of 
this board has heretofore been charged by this board with the duty 
of considering the curriculum now in effect in the public-school system 
of this city; and 

"Whereas it is the sense of this board that for the purpose of assist- 
ing the committee in its labors it is advisable that a commission 
shall be appointed to investigate and report upon the system of edu- 
cation now in force in the public schools of this city : 

11 Resolved, That the committee on rules, curriculum, and text- 
books be, and it is hereby, directed to employ a commission of three 
disinterested, competent persons to investigate and report upon the 
system of instruction now in force in the public schools of Baltimore 
City and to spend a sum not exceeding $2,000 for this purpose." 

After an informal conference between the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion and Gen. Lawrason Riggs, president of the board of school 
commissioners of Baltimore, and Mr. George A. Solter, chairman of 
the committee on rules, textbooks, and curriculum, held in Washing- 
ton January 27, 1911, the chairmanship of the commission was ten- 
dered to the Commissioner of Education by letter dated January 31, 
1911, and was accepted by him by letter dated February 10, 1911. 
The correspondence referred to is as follows: 

Baltimore, Md., January 31, 1911. 
Dr. Elmer E. Brown, 

United States Commissioner of Education, 

Washington, D. 0. 

Dear Sir: In conformity with our interview on last Friday, I 
inclose you herewith a copy of the resolution of the board of school 
commissioners of this city, providing for the appointment of the com- 
mission of which we spoke to you. 

It is the earnest desire of the committee on rules and curriculum 
that you accept the chairmanship of this commission, which we 
hereby respectfully tender to you, and as you spoke so highly of the 
attainments of Mr. E.P.Cubberley, we respectfully suggest him as one 

16 



HISTORY AND METHOD OF THE STUDY. 17 

of the members of the commission, and that you and Mr. Cubberley 
decide upon the third member. 

We are asking that this commission make a study of the curriculum 
and methods of instruction now obtaining in our schools, with a view 
of determining how they conform to the established standards in 
other large cities in this country. We feel that this study will be 
beneficial, not only to us but to all other cities in the country, and 
that a report thus made by skilled and unbiased experts will become 
a valuable document to be used by your department. 

The appropriation is to be devoted to the payment of the members 
of the commission for their services, and the expense incident to 
making this study and the disposal of it will be left to the commission 
itself. 

We sincerely trust that you will see your way clear to accept the 
position, and we beg to assure you that we will do everything possible 
to facilitate and make pleasant the work of the commission. 

I am, believe me, 

Very truly, yours, 

George A. Solter, 

Chairman of the Committee on Rules, 
Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City. 



Washington, February 10, 1911. 
Mr. George A. Solter , 

600 Maryland Telephone Building, 

Lexington and Courtland Streets, 

Baltimore, Md. 
My Dear Mr. Solter: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of January 31, and to say in reply that, after due consideration 
and consultation, I have decided to accept the invitation of the com- 
mittee on rules and curriculum of the Baltimore board of school 
commissioners, to become the chairman of the proposed commission 
to "make a study of the curriculum and methods of instruction now 
obtaining in your schools, with a view of determining how they con- 
form to the established standards in other large cities in this country." 
In accordance with the suggestion conveyed in your letter and 
the informal conference I have had on the subject with yourself and 
Gen. Riggs, I have arranged with Prof. Ellwood P. Cubberley, of 
the Leland Stanford Junior University, to serve as a second member of 
this commission, and Prof. Cubberlej^ and I have agreed to unite 
in nominating Mr. Calvin N. Kendall, superintendent of schools of 
the city of Indianapolis, as the third member. Supt. Kendall has 
signified his willingness to serve in this capacity. 
99173— Bull. 4—11 2 



18 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

Trusting that these arrangements will .prove satisfactory to your 
committee and to the board of school commissioners, and that the 
inquiry which this commission is to undertake may be of assistance 
to your honorable body, I am, believe me, 
Very truly, yours, 

Elmer Ellsworth Brown, 

Commissioner. 

The commission met in the office of the Commissioner of Education 
in Washington at 11 a. m. March 7, 1911, all members being present. 
The chairman announced that Dr. Harlan Updegraff and Mr. Milo B. 
Hillegas, of the Bureau of Education, would assist him in the inquiry. 
The commission proceeded to organize, and elected Milo B. Hillegas as 
secretary. 

Its personal examinations and inquiries in Baltimore were con- 
ducted for the most part in March. The time since April 1, except for 
occasional visits to Baltimore, has been occupied with the work indi- 
cated in the method of the study and in the preparation of this report. 

LIMITS OF THE STUDY. 

Any general inquiry into a city system of education would naturally 
concern itself with the following topics: 

(1) The relation in general of the educational system to the 
economic and social conditions and needs of the community. 

(2) The legal basis of the school system. The relation of the school 
department to other departments of the city government. 

(3) Constitution, powers, and duties of the board of education 
and the committees of the board. 

(4) The business management of the school system (including 
divisions of finance, sites and buildings, supplies, etc.; also system 
of accounting and records). 

(5) Scope, organization, etc., of the school system. 

(6) The school plant: Sites, buildings, and equipment. 

(7) External relations of pupils to the schools (including the 
administration of child-labor and school-attendance laws, attendance 
upon other than public schools, transportation, etc.). 

(8) Provision for safeguarding the health of school children (medi- 
cal inspection, the employment of school physicians and school 
nurses, open-air schools, fire drill, playgrounds, play, physical exer- 
cises, etc.). 

(9) The control and discipline of pupils. 

(10) The system of training and instruction in the ordinary day 
schools, embracing the following chief divisions: 

(A) The system of supervision; organization of schools and other 
units of supervision and teaching. 



HISTORY AND METHOD OP THE STUDY. 19 

(B) The teaching force (preliminary training, appointment, sal- 
aries, promotions, personal quality, control and influence in classes, 
individual and organized relations with the school system and with 
the community, scholastic and professional improvement while in 
service). 

(C) The curriculum or course of study in day schools, elementary 
and secondary (with particular reference to such questions as the 
choice of studies, the addition of new subjects, the distribution of the 
hours of instruction in the several grades, the proportion and se- 
quence of the several topics, etc.). 

(D) Methods of training and instruction. 

(E) Apparatus and materials for the purposes of training and in- 
struction (textbooks, laboratories, workshops, libraries, schoolroom 
decoration, etc.). 

(F) Tests of the attainments of pupils, promotion, graduation, the 
proportion of retarded members in the several classes, the moral qual- 
ity of pupils and graduates, their health, intelligence, and efficiency. 

(G) Auxiliary agencies and arrangements for increasing the effec- 
tiveness of the ordinary course of instruction and training (including 
provision for varying the rate of promotion, schools and classes for 
exceptional pupils, parental schools, etc.). 

(11) Educational extension (including evening schools, continua- 
tion schools, public lectures, and other subjects embraced under the 
familiar title "Wider uses of the school plant"). 

Of the topics mentioned, the one which has been assigned to this 
commission is that numbered (10). In this report passing mention is 
made of other subjects as bearing on this central theme. The legal 
basis of the system and its financial support have been treated with 
some fullness, because of their intimate connection with the problem 
of the making of an adequate system of education. Of the sub- 
divisions of topic (10), it has not been possible that all should be 
treated with equal fullness, because of limitations of time. It having 
been the desire of the board of school commissioners and also of this 
commission that the inquiry be completed by the 1st of April, or as 
soon thereafter as possible, the commission has found it necessary to 
center their chief attention upon the following: 

(A) The system of supervision, 

(B) The training and efficiency of the teaching force, 

(C) The school curriculum, and methods of instruction, 
devoting such additional attention as has been possible to other divi- 
sions of the tenth general topic, as enumerated above. 



20 EEPOET ON THE BALTIMOEE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

THE METHOD OF THE STUDY. 

The method pursued by the commission in making this study has 
for the most part been as follows : 

(1) The history of the public-school system has been reviewed. 
For that purpose we have made use of official reports and other pub- 
lished materials. These have been supplemented by personal inter- 
views with citizens of Baltimore, both within and outside of the 
school system, who have had direct knowledge of different stages of 
that history. 

(2) A study has been made of recent and current criticisms of the 
system. We have gone over all published and written material of 
this kind which has come to our notice, both favorable and unfavor- 
able. As is usual in such a case, the unfavorable criticism has been 
the more outspoken and voluminous. We have considered attentively 
this adverse comment, as presented from the most widely different 
points of view. 

In order that there might be a full and free expression of present 
opinion on the subject, we addressed to the chairman of the com- 
mittee on rules of the board of school commissioners a letter, in 
which we stated that the commission would welcome well-considered 
opinions, specific information, and suggestions as to ways in which the 
inquiry might be made most fruitful. The letter was made an official 
circular issued from the superintendent's office and was also given to 
the public press. In response to this announcement we received 50 
communications, some of which had numerous signatures; 29 of the 
number were anonymous. 

All of these communications, which for the most part were care- 
fully and seriously written, have been attentively read and consid- 
ered. Further than this, we have conferred personally with many 
citizens, representing different shades of opinion ; with all of the 
members of the board of superintendents; with the faculties of the 
training schools; with all of the group principals of schools, with 
many of the vice principals, and with more than 300 of the teachers. 
At their request, we have given hearings, with all members of the 
commission present, to groups of representative teachers. 

(3) We have given particular attention to observation of the 
actual work of the schools. This has involved personal visits by the 
members of the commission and their assistants to schools in every 
one of the 22 groups in the city. Of the 105 schools in Baltimore, we 
have visited in this way one-half, and in so doing have been in about 
250 classrooms. Some of these visits were brief, and others of longer 
duration. Inasmuch as we were not passing judgment on individual 
teachers but on the system as a whole, it was more to our purpose 
to gain a general view by visiting many rooms in all sections of the 



HISTORY AND METHOD OF THE STUDY. 21 

city than to attempt a more detailed examination of a smaller 
number of classes. The fact that all of the members of the com- 
mission, and their assistants as well, had had practical experience in 
the inspection of schools, was an added reason why this procedure 
might be expected to yield fairly accurate information. 

(4) Our first reliance for the interpretation of the materials so 
collected has been a comparison with other cities. With this end in 
view, visits have been made to half a dozen other cities; the pub- 
lished reports, regulations, and courses of study of a larger number 
of cities have been carefully examined by members of the staff of the 
Bureau of Education at Washington ; and special inquiries have been 
sent to such cities, from the bureau, for the clearing up of certain 
points. For these comparisons, reference has been had ordinarily 
to the 13 largest cities in the country, according to the census of 1910, 
each having a population of over 350,000. Baltimore is the seventh 
city in population, and accordingly stands at the middle point of this 
list of 13. For certain particulars in which they are conspicuous, 
reference has been made to several other cities of less population than 
those in this list. Comparisons relative to financial affairs have been 
based on a special inquiry made by agents of the Bureau of the 
Census in the year 1909, covering a part but not all of the cities of 
300,000 population and over. By a mere coincidence, the number of 
cities included in this list of the Census Office is also 13. 

In making comparison with other cities, we have found it im- 
portant to consider not only present conditions and practices but also 
the directions in which change has been made within the past genera- 
tion, and particularly since the beginning of the twentieth century. 

(5) Judgments, however, have not been based solely upon current 
practices and tendencies in our larger cities. The commission has 
deemed it proper and necessary that it should discriminate between 
the better and the less good in these tendencies and practices, and 
should express opinions based upon general conceptions of educa- 
tional excellence. We realize the danger that such judgments may 
easily come to represent mere personal bias, and for this reason have 
recommended, in the main, only those practices which have been 
proved by experience. Where larger liberty has been taken in setting 
forth general principles and ideals of education, it has been done on 
the basis of substantial unanimity on the part of the several members 
of the commission and their assistants. 



CHAPTER II. 

PRELIMINARY TOPICS. 

THE RECENT HISTORY OF CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

City school systems as organized at present in the United States 
had their beginnings about the time of the educational revival in the 
second quarter of the nineteenth century, when the simplicity of 
the older district units began to give place to the complexity of city 
organization. By the time of the Civil War the more highly devel- 
oped form of educational organization was generally found in the 
larger American municipalities. 

The history of city schools during the latter part of the nine- 
teenth century may be briefly outlined by calling attention to some 
of the problems which arose into prominence at different times. 
After the problem of organization came that of the adjustment of the 
schools to the school population. Soon after the war the cities began 
an extraordinary growth — a growth, moreover, which was made by the 
addition of heterogeneous elements to the population. The enact- 
ment of compulsory school attendance laws followed. 

Massachusetts had passed its attendance law as early as 1852, but 
it was not until the early seventies that- the wave of such legislation 
swept over the country. In that decade nearly half of the States 
which now have compulsory school attendance passed such enact- 
ments. Out of these conditions arose questions touching the grading 
of schools, the promotion of pupils, school discipline, and kindred 
topics. In the eighties the problem became more generally one of 
instruction and the enrichment of the course of study. It was in 
the early eighties that manual training fairly made its appearance 
in American schools. Introduced at first into the high schools, it 
spread over the country and began to push its way down into the 
elementary grades. In the eighties and nineties the beginnings were 
made in the wider differentiation of school studies. In the nineties, 
particularly, more attention began to be given to such subjects as 
music, drawing, and physical culture. This broadening of school 
instruction made necessary a greater complexity of organization, the 
development of special functions in administration, supervision, and 
teaching, and increased attention to the training of teachers. The 
"Quincy methods," the Forum articles on city school systems, the 
report of the Chicago Educational Commission, and the organization 

22 



THE RECENT HISTORY OE CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 23 

of the Greater New York system of schools, are among the landmarks 
of this period. 

During the first decade of the twentieth century the population 
of the United States increased about 21 per cent. In general, the 
cities have shown a greater growth than that of the country as a 
whole, and on the material side at least their school systems have 
kept pace with the growth in population. 

On the side of school administration certain tendencies have been 
apparent during the decade, among which the following may be men- 
tioned: The movement to reduce the number of members of school 
boards, the increasing demand for the removal of the schools from 
the influence of partisan politics, and the employment of specialists 
in different departments of the business management and the scholas- 
tic supervision of the educational system. As regards the teaching 
force, it may be said that the trend has been in the direction of higher 
salaries and the requirement of superior qualifications and greater 
efficiency. Closer supervision, a more flexible course of study for 
high schools, provision of special classes for exceptional children, 
more varied and more specialized teaching in the upper elementary 
grades, a closer adaptation of the ordinary school work to the ordi- 
nary needs of life, and provision in continuation schools for children 
who are compelled to go to work early in life, are some features of 
educational endeavor that have been uppermost of late in the minds 
of our educational authorities. 

The decade has been marked by the extension of the school system 
to include various special activities, such as those of social and 
recreation centers, playgrounds, school gardens, baths, school lunch 
rooms, and savings banks operated by pupils in school, all of which 
seem destined to render the school more widely serviceable to the 
people. 

Within the decade some movements of still larger significance have 
made notable headway. Perhaps the most important of these has 
appeared in the demand for vocational training. Within the past 
decade the emphasis in manual training has shifted from the cultural 
to the vocational aim, and now many school systems offer training 
which looks directly to a vocation in the industries. In addition to 
this industrial training, commercial courses and courses in domestic 
economy for girls have grown in popularity and are now widely 
offered in public schools. 

Speaking in the most general terms, it ma3" be said that a widening of 
the range of school activities, greater variation within that wider 
range, a closer touch with the actuality of industrial and civic interests, 
more expert and professional direction, with greater insistence on the 
moral aims that arise along with tendencies such as these, have been 
characteristic of these earlier vears of the twentieth century. 



24 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM AND GENERAL STATISTICS OF 
THE CITY OF BALTIMORE. 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

1826. State legislature passed laws permitting the mayor and coun- 
cil to establish, regulate, and support public schools; it was also pro- 
vided that if the city did not avail itself of this privilege the State 
laws regarding public schools should apply. (Laws, 1825, 2d sess., 
chaps. 130, 162.) 

1827. The mayor and council accepted the responsibility for the 
conduct of the public schools in Baltimore under these acts, which 
remained the fundamental State laws until 1868. (Ordinance of Jan. 
17, 1827.) 

1828. Board of school commissioners appointed by two branches 
of council. Composed of mayor, ex officio, and one member from 
each of six districts. Tenure, one year. Directed by council to estab- 
lish a school of two departments (male and female) on monitorial plan; 
make rules and regulations; examine and appoint teachers and fix 
their compensation; report annually to city council including account 
of expenditures and estimates of expenses for ensuing year. The 
board was also authorized to appoint a superintendent of schools and 
to fix his compensation. (No superintendent appointed until 1866.) 
His duties were defined as follows : To inspect each school weekly and 
make monthly reports to commissioners regarding the number attend- 
ing, tuition fees collected, discipline, and such other objects as may 
be required. (This ordinance vested the commissioners with full 
power to establish schools, but failed to provide adequate means for 
their organization and support.) (Ordinance of Mar. 8, 1828, No. 
19, p. 17.) 

1829. Public school fund placed in the hands of board of school 
commissioners. They were also authorized to receive bequests, dona- 
tions, and grants. (Ordinance, Apr. 6, 1829.) 

. First school opened. 

1830. Revision of ordinances — mayor no longer member of board. 
Mayor required to call body together within ten days after the elec- 
tion. President and secretary elected from members of board. 
Board authorized to establish other schools; required to furnish 
books and stationery for pupils, who were to pay in advance a sum 
not exceeding $1 per quarter each; authorized to lease buildings, 
procure lots, and erect buildings in name of the mayor and city 
council. (Ordinances of Apr. 7, 1830, No. 42, p. 138, and No. 29, p. 
199.) 

First public schoolhouse erected, on Aisquith Street near 

Favette. 



HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM. 25 

1834. Board of school commissioners increased to 9 members. 
(Ordinance, May 12, 1834, No. 33, p. 41.) 

1838. Revision — board increased to 13 commissioners. (Ordi- 
nance of May 22, 1838, No. 44, p. 110.) 

1839. Male Central High School opened October 20. (Name 
changed to Baltimore City College, 1866.) Monitorial institutions en- 
tirely dispensed with. 

1842. Board of school commissioners increased to 14 members, 
one from each ward. (Ordinance of Jan. 26, 1842, No. 1. p. 18.) 

1844. Two female high schools established; one in the eastern 
and the other in the western par*t of the town. 

1846. Board of school commissioners increased to 20 members, one 
from each ward. (Ordinance of Jan. 23, 1846, No. 1, p. 5.) 

1848. Treasurer given duties of a superintendent. Treasurer re- 
ports 427 visits in 1861. 

1851. Two normal classes organized; discontinued 1858. 

1857. "Floating school" opened (nautical school maintained 
jointly with board of trade). (No. 38, p. 60.) 

1866. Revision. — Secretary given charge of rooms, books, papers, 
and documents of board and required to perform such clerical duties 
as directed by the board or any of its committees. His salary must 
be approved by two branches of city council. 

. The appointment of a superintendent of public instruction 

was authorized. He must have been a resident of the city, possess 
literary and scientific acquirements, and skill and experience in the 
art of teaching. His term of office was to be four years. He was to 
devote his entire time to general supervision, " subject to such rules 
and regulations as the board of school commissioners may establish." 
He was also required, in conjunction with a committee of three com- 
missioners, to examine applicants for teaching positions "in the forms 
prescribed by the board." His salary was to be fixed by the school 
commissioners subject to the approval of the two branches of the 
council. 

The city register was directed to take charge of all school moneys 
and. to pay out the same on bills examined by committee of accounts 
of the board and countersigned by the secretary of the board. (Ordi- 
nance of June 20, 1866, No. 74, Code 1869, p. 658.) 

— — - — . J. N. M'Jilton superintendent of public schools till 1868. 

1867. Ordinance adopted directing board of school commissioners 
to establish separate schools for the colored children, under the same 
rules as governed the white public schools. (Colored children had 
previously been instructed in private schools or in the free schools 
which had been organized by the Association for the Improvement of 
Colored People, and which had been supported by private contribu- 



26 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

tions.) The board organized such schools but the city council failed 
to make an appropriation for their support. 

1868. Separate schools for colored children authorized, to be sup- 
ported from taxes paid for school purposes by colored people. 
(Ordinance of May 5, 1868, No. 68, p. 36.) 

. Statute. The relative powers of the mayor and council and 

of the board of school commissioners fixed by law. The full power 
and authority to establish schools was placed in the mayor and city 
council, who "may delegate supervisory powers and control to a 
board of school commissioners; may prescribe rules for building 
schoolhouses and for locating, establishing, and closing schools." 
"The board of school commissioners of Baltimore Cit}", or by what- 
soever name the body may be known that has supervisory powers 
and control over the public schools of Baltimore City, shall have 
power to examine, appoint, and remove teachers, prescribe the quali- 
fications, fix the salaries, and select the textbooks for the schools of 
said city." (Laws of 1868, chap. 407.) 

. William R. Creery superintendent of public schools till 

1875. 

1872. Appointment of assistant superintendent ordered. He must 
be a resident of Baltimore. Same term of office as superintendent. 
To visit primary schools; to assist in the examination of teachers; 
to report to superintendent. (Ordinance of Apr. 22, 1872, No. 50.) 

. Normal class for instruction in "theory and practice of 

teaching" organized. Discontinued 1881. 

1874. An English-German school established as an experiment. 

1875. Free library established for the use of teachers and pupils of 
public schools. 

. Henry E. Shepherd superintendent of public schools till 

1881. 

1877. Commission of five citizens appointed by mayor and city 
council to inquire into public-school systems. (The Latrobe com- 
mission, reported in 1880.) 

1881. Henry A. Wise superintendent of public schools till 1900. 

1884. Manual training school organized. 

. Payment of $1 per quarter by each pupil as tuition or inci- 
dental fee abolished. (Ordinance of Oct. 6, 1884, No. 141.) 

1886. Term of school commissioners changed from one year to four 
years. Members of board may be expelled by joint vote of two 
branches of council. 

. Appointment of superintendent of supplies authorized "to 

supervise, take care of, and have general control of all furniture, 
stoves, furnaces, fuel, repairs, and other incidental supplies," and 
such other duties as board may direct. (Apr. 8, 1886, No. 31, from 
Revised Code, 1892, p. 876.) 



HISTOEY OF THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM. 



27 



1888. Mayor again became a member ex officio of the board of 
school commissioners, which body was increased to 22 members by 
reason of two additional wards formed from the " annex." Mem- 
bers of board elected to fill a vacancy by the board might hold office 
only until the next session of the council. (Mar. 2, 1888, No. 56 r 
from Revised Code, 1892, p. 876.) 

1890. "The schedule of salaries of all officers, employees, and 
teachers shall stand as now fixed." (Ordinance of June 12, 1890, 
No. 135, p. 195.) 

1891. Board required to advertise for all purchases of $50 and over; 
proposals to be opened in presence of city comptroller, city register, 
and a committee of the board, who, together, should constitute a com- 
mittee on awards. The comptroller, register, and committee were 
each to have one vote. (Ordinance, Apr. 1, 1891, No. 18.) 

1892. Eight evening schools opened, under charge of 38 teachers, 
with 1,413 pupils enrolled. Cooking school opened. 

1898. Present city charter passed. (Mar. 24, 1898, chap. 123.) 

1900. James H. Van Sickle superintendent of public schools to 
date. 

1901. Group system of supervision introduced. 
. Training school for teachers established. 

1902. Manual training centers established. 
-. Preparatory classes introduced. 

GENERAL STATISTICS OF BALTIMORE FOR 1900-1910. 

Population, etc., 1900. 

Total population, 1900 508, 957 

White 429, 21& 

Colored (15.6 per cent) , 79, 258 

Other races 481 

Total public school enrollment, 1900 79, 659 

Average attendance 54, 403 

Occupations of inhabitants, 10 years of age or over, 1900. 1 



Agricultural pursuits 

Professional service 

Domestic and personal service 

Trade and transportation 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 

Totals 



Males. 



1,303 

7,197 

36, 091 

54, 143 

57, 715 



Females. 



127 
3,092 

28, 417 
7,666 

21, 599 



Totals. 



1,43a 
10,289 
64, 508 
61,809- 
79,314 



156,449 i 60,901 217,35a 



i Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900: Special Reports, Occupations, pp. 488-494. 



28 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

Number engaged in the principal occupations, 1900. 



Males. 



Females. 



Trade and transportation: 

Clerks and copyists 

Merchants and dealers (excluding wholesale) . 

Draymen, hackmen, teamsters, etc 

Salesmen 

Steam railroad employees 

Agents 

Bookkeepers and accountants 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits: 

Tailors 

Carpenters and joiners 

Painters, glaziers, and varnishers 

Machinists 

Tin-plate and tinware makers 

Manufacturers and officials, etc 

Boot and shoe makers and repairers 

Seamstresses 

Dressmakers 

Shirt, collar, and cuff makers 

Cotton-mill operatives 

Milliners 



11,622 
8,018 
6,988 
4,937 
3,488 
2,646 
2,463 

6,157 
4,280 
3,083 
2,957 
2,561 
2,411 
2,089 



2,230 



5,593 
4,912 
1,967 
1,470 
1,095 



Statistics of manufacturing. 
Number of manufacturing establishments, 1905 



Capital $148, 

Wage earners 

Wages $25, 

Cost of material used $81, 

Value of products, including custom work and repairing $151, 

Assessed valuation and rate of taxation. 

Assessed valuation of property subject to general property tax (1908) 2 .. $433, 
Rate per $1,000 valuation, 1908 

Assessed valuation of property subject to special property tax (1908). . 226, 
Rate per $1,000 valuation, 1908 — securities 



2,163 
763, 503 
65, 224 
633, 550 
014, 029 
546, 580 



343, 182 

20 

688, 857 

3 



Total population, 1910 3 ... 

White 

Colored (15.2 per cent) 

Other races 

Total public school enrollment 
Average attendance 



Population, etc., 1910. 



558, 485 

473, 388 

84, 749 

348 

79, 838 

55, 103 



THE LEGAL BASIS OF THE SYSTEM. 

The history of school administration in Baltimore may be divided 
into two periods: (1) From 1826 to 1900; (2) from 1900 to the pres- 
ent time. The first period is characterized by the predominance of 
the mayor and city council; the second by the limited ascendancy 
of the board of school commissioners and the board of superintend- 

1 Special reports of the Bureau of the Census: Manufactures, Pt. II, 1905, p. 403. 

2 Special reports of the Bureau of the Census, Statistics of Cities, 1908, p. 56. 
» Statement of Director of the Census, May 15, 1911. 



THE LEGAL BASIS OF THE SYSTEM. 29 

ents. From a point of view of practical administration these periods 
may be described as the political and nonpolitical, respectively. 

The first period. — Under the act of January 17, 1826, the city 
council exercised full authority in the management of schools, sub- 
ject to such special laws as were passed by the legislature. These 
were, however, few in number and did not change appreciably the 
practice that had grown up under city ordinances. 

The functions of the board of school commissioners just previous 
to 1900 were confined to the examination of applicants for teaching 
positions, the appointment of teachers and other employees, and the 
fixing of their salaries, the selection of textbooks, the prescription of 
the course of study, the purchase of equipment and supplies, the 
contracting for repairs, the framing of the rules and regulations, and 
the making of annual reports and annual estimates to the mayor and 
the council. In the performance of these functions they were limited 
by the mayor and the council in the following ways : 

(1) Under its authority to approve salaries, the council actually 
fixed the salaries of all officers and teachers. 

(2) In all purchases and contracts of over $50 a committee of the 
board had one vote in three (the city comptroller and the city register 
had one each) in making the awards after proper advertising. 

(3) No goods or services could be bought from members of the 
board. 

(4) Expenditures must have been for no other purposes than those 
stated in estimates, and must have been kept in as exact proportion 
as possible to the amounts as given. 

(5) Powers and duties of superintendent, assistant superintend- 
ent, secretary, and superintendent of supplies were fixed by the 
council. 

At the same time the mayor and the council exercised the power 
of revision of estimates, of taxation, of purchasing sites and erecting 
schoolhouses, of delegating " supervisory powers and control" to a 
subordinate board whose members were chosen by them, and of 
defining its authority in any way except in the matters of examina- 
tion and appointment of teachers and selection of textbooks. 

The mayors and the councilmen of Baltimore from 1840 to 1S99 
were presumably no better and no worse than the men who held 
like positions in the other large cities of our country under similar 
charters. Such motives and rewards as have appealed to the incum- 
bents of such positions in our cities doubtless influenced them in the 
performance of their duties. While, in theory, the board of school 
commissioners was selected by the council in joint assembly, in practice 
each first branch councilman selected the school commissioner from his 
own ward, his nomination being equivalent to an election by virtue 



30 BEPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

of so-called "senatorial courtesy." There were 22 wards. The 
mayor was also a member of the board ex officio. The school com- 
missionership was very frequently used as a stepping stone to the 
council or else was given to the outgoing councilman by the man who 
had defeated him. 

In the conduct of the business of the board political considerations 
were of the greatest importance. The president of the board was 
always of the political party having the majority of the membership. 
In making his committee appointments the members of his own party 
received the chairmanships, which carried predominant influence, 
and a majority of the places on the general committees, of which 
there were 30 in 1898. However, each member was chairman of the 
local committee for the schools of his own ward, and through courtesy 
was given by the one other member of the committee full freedom as 
regards those schools. Those administrative functions which were 
directly or remotely connected with the building up of political influ- 
ence were guarded closely by the school commissioners and kept for 
the most part in their own hands. 

The superintendent was relegated to the rear. He was a "fifth 
wheel." The ordinance provided that he must be a man "of literary 
and scientific acquirements and of skill and experience in the art of 
teaching," but his duties were limited to visitation, suggestion, and 
reporting. He had little real authority in the conduct of schools. 
Teachers and principals looked to the local committeemen, and in 
some cases to the chairman of a general committee, for their positions, 
increase in salaries, and additional supplies and textbooks. That 
which the superintendent accomplished was largely by "moral 
suasion." He was also by ordinance a member of the examining com- 
mittee, together witli three commissioners and later with the assist- 
ant superintendent. But the ordinance provided that the examina- 
tions should be conducted "in the forms prescribed by the board/' 
and the superintendent was powerless in preventing the passing 
of incompetent and poorly prepared applicants when any such persons 
acquired or possessed the support of a commissioner who could secure 
the support of a majority of the committee or of the board. 

The second 'period. — The charter of 1898 created a department of 
education upon practically the same footing in regard to freedom of 
authority as other departments. In consequence, the board of school 
commissioners is still limited in the exercise of its authority to an 
unusual degree as compared with the authority usually exercised 
by school boards. The following statement relating to the different 
officers and boards which participate in the general control of schools, 
together with the principal powers and duties of each, presents an 
outline of the present system of school administration: 



THE LEGAL BASIS OF THE SYSTEM. 31 

(1) The mayor, who appoints the board of school commissioners) 
serves upon various boards described below, and approves the ordi- 
nances of estimates. 

(2) The second branch of the city council, which confirms the ap- 
pointments to the board of school commissioners made by the maj^or. 

(3) The first and second branches of the city council, which pass 
the ordinances of estimates. They may reduce but they can not 
increase the amount of any item in the ordinance ; neither may they 
introduce any new item. 

(4) The board of estimates, composed of the mayor, the city 
solicitor, comptroller^ president of the second branch of the city 
council, and president of the board of public improvements, which- 
prepares the ordinances of estimates. 

(5) The inspector of buildings, who has charge of the construction 
and repair of all school buildings and of their fixed equipment. The 
responsibility is also placed upon him for securing action by the vari- 
ous commissions and boards mentioned in the succeeding section. 

(6a) The commission for the selection of sites, composed of the 
mayor, comptroller, and president of the board of school commis- 
sioners as head of the department of education. 

(6b) The architectural commission, composed of three members 
appointed by the mayor with the approval of three members of the 
art commission. This commission selects the designs and the archi- 
tect for each school building; but the board of school commissioners 
must approve the plans before the construction of the building is 
begun. 

(6c) The board of awards, composed of the mayor, comptroller, 
city registrar, city solicitor, and the president of the second branch' 
of the city council, which opens the bids submitted for the erection of 
buildings and awards the contracts. The mayor signs all such 
contracts. 

(7) The board of school commissioners, composed of nine members 
serving for six years without pay, three being appointed every even 
numbered year for terms beginning March 1 . A school commissioner 
may be removed by the mayor at his pleasure at any time within six 
months after his appointment; after that date he may be removed 
only for cause after charges have been preferred and trial had before 
the mayor. The president of the board is designated by the mayor 
at the time of his appointment. 

The powers and duties of the board of school commissioners are 
not clearly denned. In general they lie in the field between those 
given the other .departments and those given the subordinates of the 
board — the board of superintendents, superintendent of public 



32 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

instruction, supervisor of buildings, and secretary. The board is 
constituted the "head" of the department of education. It is em- 
powered to confirm or reject all nominations of teachers, to appoint 
and remove at its pleasure all officers, secretaries, clerks, and em- 
ploj'ees; to appoint secondary teachers; to fix the salaries of all 
appointees; to remove teachers after charges preferred by superin- 
tendent and trial had ; to instruct the building inspector regarding 
plans for proposed schoolhouses, and to purchase textbooks and sta- 
tioner}-. In fact, the board has exercised full authority within the 
field not definitely assigned to other agencies. It has directed the 
general policy of the schools upon the advice of its professional 
experts and has issued rules and regulations to govern the operations 
of the school plant and the conduct of instruction. 

(8) The board of superintendents is composed of a superintendent 
of public instruction and one or more assistant superintendents 
elected by the board of school commissioners for indefinite terms. 
The duty of this board that is made most prominent in the charter 
is that of "the examination of teachers and their nomination to the 
board of school commissioners for appointment or promotion." The 
charter emphasizes the board of superintendents as opposed to the 
superintendent, requiring that the board hold regular meetings 
and keep a record of the same, and even going so far as to provide 
that in case of disagreement its members may present majority 
and minority reports to the board of school commissioners. The 
ordinary duties of such officers — supervision and inspection, reports, 
advising the board respecting courses of study, textbooks, and meth- 
ods of instruction — are also provided for. The rules of the board 
strengthen the position of the superintendent. He is named the chief 
executive officer of the board and is authorized to assign and transfer 
all teachers, to define their duties, to call meetings whenever he deems 
them necessary, and to regulate by orders, written or otherwise, the 
operation of the school system in any manner not inconsistent with 
the rules. 

(9) The charter provides that the supervisor of school buildings 
shall aid the superintendent of public instruction in ascertaining the 
sanitary condition of every school and in reporting to the proper 
authorities what repairs or improvements are necessary, and in addi- 
tion to having general supervision of school buildings in respect to 
heating, plumbing, and ventilation he shall perform such other du- 
ties as the board may direct. The board has given him the authority 
to nominate engineers, firemen, janitors, and janitresses (there are 
great numbers of the latter, at least one to every floor in each school 
house), and to remove them without reference to the board. He 



FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 33 

also passes upon requisitions for repairs and equipment made by 
principals, but his responsibility connected with purchases is confined 
entirely to fuel. He is elected by the school commissioners for an 
indefinite term. 

(10) The secretary of the board of school commissioners is named 
in the cit} r charter, but none of his duties are defined in that docu- 
ment. Under the rules of the board he performs the functions of 
clerk in the recording of the proceedings of the board and in attend- 
ing to that part of the correspondence that has to do with business 
affairs. All records of the action of the board are in his charge. He 
examines vouchers and keeps a memorandum account of bills ap- 
proved by the board. Requisitions for supplies from the offices of the 
superintendent of public instruction and the supervisor of school 
buildings are either purchased directly by him or through the munic- 
ipal authorities. He is also the custodian of supplies after their pur- 
chase. He also is elected by the board of school commissioners for an 
indefinite term. 

FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 

This portion of the report is divided into three parts: (1) Total 
school expenses; (2) total receipts from general revenues for munici- 
pal purposes; (3) school expenses in detail. 

TOTAL SCHOOL EXPENSES. 

The absolute figures upon which all percentages, average costs, 
and ratios are based are taken from schedules made out by agents 
of the Bureau of the Census after personal investigation of the records, 
or from the bulletin of that bureau upon statistics of cities, 1908. 
The percentages, average costs, and ratios are taken from a study 
of these figures, not yet published, which is in preparation in the 
Bureau of Education. In each of the three parts of the study, 
comparison is made between the expenses and receipts of 13 cities, 
including Baltimore, having in 1910 a population of 300,000 or over. 
The statistics of the various cities are in all cases for fiscal years end- 
ing between July 1, 1908, and June 30, 1909; those of Baltimore are 
for the year ending December 31, 1908. These are the latest satis- 
factory statistics that are available. New York and a few other of 
our larger cities are omitted because not reported by the Census 
Office in the year referred to. 

As compared with the 12 other cities in this group Baltimore's 
expenses for schools in 1908 were less per capita of population than 
those of any other city except one — New Orleans. The average cost 
of Baltimore was $3.32, or 94 cents less than the median. If Balti- 
more had spent as much per capita of population as the median city 

99173^Bull. 4—11 3 



34 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



during 1908 she would have increased her expenditures for public 
schools by almost $5 15,000. The following table and diagram illus- 
trate the relative amounts per capita for each city in the group: 

Table 1. — Total expenses of schools per capita of population, 1908. l 



Chicago, 111 $4. 54 

St. Louis, Mo 4. 20 

Cleveland, Ohio 4. 53 

Baltimore, Md 3. 32 

Detroit, Mich 4. 00 

Buffalo, N. Y 3. 96 

San Francisco, Cal 4. 26 



Milwaukee, Wis $3. 66 

Newark, N. J 6.02 

New Orleans, La 2. 89 

Washington, D. C 6. 40 

Los Angeles, Cal 4. 76 

Minneapolis, Minn 4. 78 



$1.00 



00 $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 $7. 




CHICAGO 

ST LOUIS 

CLEVELAND 

BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 

BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 

MILWAUKEE 

NEWARK 

NEW ORLEANS 

WASHINGTON 

LOS ANGELES 

MINNEAPOLIS 



Fig. 1. Cost of schools per capita of population, based on Table 1. 

A comparison of the relative amounts of school expenses and of 
total city expenses in these 13 cities shows that Baltimore expended 
for school purposes a larger percentage of the total city expenses than 
4 cities and a smaller percentage than 8. The median or average 
percentage was 25.9; Baltimore's percentage was 24. In other 
words, in the average, or normal city, 25.9 cents out of eveiy dollar 
expended for all municipal purposes went for schools, while in Balti- 
more only 24 cents were so expended. The following table and dia- 
gram present these facts : 



i The revised estimates of population in June, 1908, as made by the Census Office have been used in 
making this and the following computations. This estimate is for Baltimore 549,017. 



FINANCIAL, SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 



35 



Table 2. — Ratio of total school expenses to total city expenses, 1908. 



Chicago, 111 0.26 

St. Louie, Mo 23 

Cleveland, Ohio 32 

Baltimore, Md 24 

Detroit, Mich 28 

Buffalo, N. Y 24 

San Francisco, Cal 20 



CHICAGO 
ST. LOUIS 
CLEVELAND 
BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 
BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 
MILWAUKEE 

NEWARK 

NEW ORLEANS 

WASHINGTON 
LOS ANGELES 
MINNEAPOLIS 



Milwaukee, Wis 

Newark, N. J 

New Orleans, La... 
Washington, D. C. 
Los Angeles, Cal. . . 
Minneapolis, Minn. 




0.25 
.32 
.23 
.26 
.35 
.37 



A0 



Fig. 2.— Ratio of school expenses to city expenses, based on Table 2. The various ratios, .10, .20, etc., may 
be read also as 10 per cent, 20 per cent, etc.; for example, the school expenses of San Francisco were 20 
per cent of the city expenses. 

A comparison of expenses for schools and for police in these 13 
cities shows that 2 cities spent smaller relative amounts for schools 
than Baltimore, while 10 cities were relatively more liberal. For 
every dollar spent for police, Baltimore spent only $1.47 for schools, 
while the median or average city spent $2.12. The following table 
and diagram present the facts : 



36 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



Table 3. — Ratio of total school expenses to expenses for police. 



Chicago, 111 1.55 

St. Louis, Mo 1. 41 

Cleveland, Ohio 2.94 

Baltimore, Md 1.47 

Detroit, Mich 2. 12 

Buffalo, N. Y 1.69 

San Francisco, Cal 1. 22 



1.00 



Milwaukee, Wis 2. 42 

Newark, N. J 2.56 

New Orleans, La 3. 01 

Washington, D. C 1.86 

Los Angeles, Cal 2. 93 

Minneapolis, Minn 4. 24 



RATIO 
2.00 3.00 



4.00 




CHICAGO 
ST. LOUIS 
CLEVELAND 

BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 

BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 

MILWAUKEE 

NEWARK 

NEW ORLEANS 
WASHINGTON 
LOS ANGELES 

MINNEAPOLIS 



Fig. 3. — Ratio of school expenses to expenses for police, based on Table 3. The various ratios, 1, 2, etc., 
may be read also as 100 per cent, 200 per cent, etc. ; for example, the school expenses of New Orleans were 
301 per cent of the expenses for police. 

The above facts would suggest that Baltimore did not expend so 
much per capita to maintain its municipal affairs in general as did 
the most of the cities. Upon inquiry it is found that Baltimore 
expended for current expenses a less amount per capita than 10 and 
a greater amount than 2 of the 13 cities. The median city of this 
group paid $16.02 per capita to carry on its municipal affairs while 
Baltimore paid but $13.29, a difference of $2.73. The following 
table and diagram represent the facts :* 



i From Special Reports of the Bureau of the Census: Statistics of Cities, 1908, p. 290. 



FINANCIAL. SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 



37 



Table 4. — Per capita payments for general and special service expenses. 



Chicago, 111 $16. 34 

St. Louis, Mo 17. 53 

Cleveland, Ohio 15. 09 

Baltimore, Md 13. 29 

Detroit, Mich 16. 02 

Buffalo, N. Y 16.88 

San Francisco, Cal 23. 68 



CHICAGO 

ST. LOUIS 

CLEVELAND 

BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 

BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 

MILWAUKEE 

NEWARK 

NEW ORLEANS 

WASHINGTON 

LOS ANGELES 

MINNEAPOLIS 



Milwaukee, Wis. $15. 57 

Newark, N.J 20.28 

New Orleans, La 12. 57 

Washington, D. C 24.52 

Los Angeles, Cal 13. 52 

Minneapolis, Minn 12. 41 



$25 




Fig. 4. 



-Amounts per capita of population expended for general and special service expenses; based on 
Table 4. These expenses include practically all current expenses. 



Had Baltimore's expense per capita for all municipal purposes 
equaled $16.02, the median or average per capita for the group of 
cities, and had the department of education expended the median 
or average proportion of the total city expenses, about $390,000 
would have been added to the support of the schools. 

TOTAL EECEIPTS FROM GENERAL REVENUES. 

Inasmuch as Baltimore did not expend for its schools or for its 
municipal affairs generally as much as the average or normal city, 
it is pertinent to inquire into the credit side of municipal finances. 
The results of a study of receipts from general revenues in cities of 
300,000 population or over in the United States in 1908, which 
formed over 70 per cent of the receipts from all city revenues, shows 



38 



REPORT OX THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



that Baltimore's receipts were but SI 6. 32 per capita of population, 
while those of the median or average city were $18.07. The same 
per capita for Baltimore during 1908 as that enjoyed by the median 
city would have added to its receipts over $960,000. The following 
table represents the facts in this matter and also shows the amounts 
per capita of population that each of the various cities obtains from 
each principal source of revenue : 

Table 5. — Total amounts and amounts per capita received from each of the principal 

sources of revenue in 1908. 

[The amounts are taken from special reports of the Bureau of the Census: Statistics of Cities, 1908, pp. 
192-193; the population figures from p. 343.] 



No. 


' Cities. 


Estimated 
population. 


All receipts. 


Taxes. 


Licenses and 
permits. 


Total. 


Per 

capita. 


TotaL caprta. 


Total. 


Per 
capita. 


1 




2,092,869 
665,802 
523, 187 
549,079 
426, 592 
405,714 
402,836 
350,852 
322,784 
329,207 
321,128 
270,491 
286, 241 


$41,546,465 
13, 799, 932 
9,345,285 
8,963,040 
7,037,586 
7, 499, 983 
9,385,013 
6,142,214 
5,826,020 
5,848,151 
12,168,378 
5,273,272 
4,633,924 


$19.95 
20.71 
17.88 
16.32 
16.49 
18.49 
23.35 
17. 50 
18.07 
17.79 
37.93 
19.53 
16.20 


$31,843,470 $15.25 
11,773,339 17.67 
7,628,341 i 14.59 
7,518,725 13.69 
5,457,955 i 12.79 
6,556,446 16.18 


$8,608,914 

1,495,724 

1,329,358 

902,959 

867,432 

709,633 

1,582,537 

869,525 

615,199 

734,212 

644,750 

717,594 

483,334 


$4.12 


? 




2.25 


3 
4 


Cleveland, Ohio 


2.54 
1.65 


5 




2.03 


6 


Buffalo, N. Y 


1.75 


7 
8 
9 


San Francisco, Cal 

Milwaukee, Wis 


7,073,395 
4,859,602 
3, 732, 374 
4,771,561 
5,- 169, 874 
3,446,268 
3,868,398 


17.55 
13.87 
11.57 
14.50 
16.12 
12.78 
13.55 


3.93 
2.48 
1.91 


10 

11 
12 
13 


New Orleans, La 

Washington, D. C 

Los Angeles, Cal 

Minneapolis, Minn 


2.23 
2.01 
2.66 
1.69 



No. 


Cities. 


Estimated 
population. 


Fines and forfeits. 


1 

Subventions and Other subventions 

grants for education, and grants and gifts. 


Total. 


Per 
capita. 


Total. 


Per 
capita. 


Total. 


Per 
capita. 


1 




2, 092, 869 
665, 802 
523, 187 
549, 079 
426, 592 
405, 714 
402, 836 
350, 852 
322, 784 
329, 207 
321, 128 
270, 491 
286, 241 


$548, 790 
107, 020 
23, 901 
9,569 
12,334 
35,020 
33, 718 
56, 105 
23, 672 
32, 485 
112,087 
66, 147 
57,616 


$0. 263 $340. 585 


$0. 164 

.425 

.481 

.969 

1.570 

.359 

.167 

.751 

.421 

.563 

8.403 

3.813 

.735 


$204, 706 
140, 585 
111,115 


$0. 099 


9 




.161 
.457 
.174 
.289 
.086 
.084 
.160 
.073 
.098 
.349 
.245 
.202 


283, 243 

251,565 

531,787 

670,119 

145, 798 

674, 194 

263, 393 

1,360,293 

185,257 

2, 697, 137 

1,029,542 

210, 196 


.211 


3 




.213 


4 






F, 




29,746 
53, 086 
19,683 
93, 589 
94, 482 
121,239 
3,543,064 
13, 721 
14,380 


. 069 


fi 


Buffalo, N. Y 


.131 


8 


San Francisco, Cal 


.048 
.238 


Q 




.293 


10 

11 

12 
13 


New Orleans, La 

Washington, D. C 

Los Angeles, Cal 

Minneapolis, Minn 


.31 9 
1.103 
.061 
.050 



From the above table it will be seen that Baltimore, as compared 
with other cities, secured the smallest amount per capita from licenses 
and permits, was fifth in the amount per capita received from taxes, 
seventh in amount received from fines and forfeits, and tenth in 
amount per capita received from subventions and grants from other 
civil divisions for education, while nothing was received from sub- 
ventions and grants for other purposes. Had Baltimore received as 
much per capita from licenses and permits as the median city, about 
$318,000 would have been added to its resources in 1908; and had as 



FINANCIAL SUPPOKT OF THE SYSTEM. 



39 



much been raised per capita from taxes as the median city, about 
$445,000 would have been added to its available funds for 1908. 
While it is true, on the other hand, that the subvention received from 
the State for educational purposes was paid by this city, and still 
more in addition, as the State school tax, the same may be said of 
other cities. In fact it seems almost universally true that cities pay 
more into the State treasuries than they receive back from them, 
and it is altogether probable that Baltimore fares no worse in this 
respect than most cities. 

EXPENSES IN DETAIL. 

The various items of expense of a city school system should be 
judged from two standpoints: First, as to the distribution of the 
total expenses among the various schools and activities and the 
various objects necessary to their operation; second, as to the unit 
costs of the various schools, activities, and objects for which expenses 
were incurred. 

The following table shows (1) the median or average percentages 
of the total expenses that were expended in 1908-9 in 13 of the 
cities of the United States of 300,000 population and over for each 
of the principal divisions of school expenses; (2) the same for Balti- 
more for 1908; (3) the divisions in which there was an excess in 
Baltimore of expenses above the average percentage and the amounts 
thereof; and (4) the divisions in which there was a deficiency and 
the amounts thereof. 



Principal divisions. 



General control ' 

Elementary schools 

Secondary schools 

Normal, evening, vacation, and special schools. 
Miscellaneous expenses 



Total. 



Median per- 
centages of 
total ex- 
penses in 
all cities. 



2.5 

77.5 
14.2 
3.5 
2.3 



100.0 



Median per- 
centages of 
total ex- 
penses in 
Baltimore. 



2.2 
78.4 
14.2 
1.2 
4.0 



100.0 



Excesses in 
Baltimore. 



Deficien- 
cies in 
Baltimore. 



0.9 



0.3 



2.3 



1.7 



2.6 



i Under general control are included expenses of board of education, of finance offices, of superintend- 
ent's office, and other overhead charges. 

As measured solely by the standard of other cities combined, Balti- 
more gave too large a part of her limited funds to elementary schools 
and to miscellaneous expenses, too small a proportion to general 
control and to normal, evening, vacation, and special schools, and 
exactly the correct proportion to secondar} 7- schools. Only 3 cities 
of the 13 gave a larger proportion to elementary schools, and 9 gave 
less, while 1 other city gave a larger proportion to miscellaneous 
expenses. On the other hand only 4 cities gave less for general con- 



40 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

trol, and only 2 less for normal, evening, vacation, and special schools. 
Six cities gave less and 6 gave more toward the support of secondary 
schools. 

Certain expenses involved in the maintenance and operation of 
these schools and activities deserve particular notice. The most 
uneconomical expense connected with the Baltimore system was 
that of rent. Two and six-tenths per cent of the total expenses went 
for this purpose, 1.4 per cent greater than in any other city and 2.3 
per cent more than the median, or average, for the group of cities. 
The next greatest excess was for textbooks, stationery, and supplies: 
1 per cent in the secondary schools and 0.8 per cent in the elementary 
schools. No other city spent so large a percentage for rent, although 
Minneapolis spent but one-tenth of 1 per cent less, while 3 cities 
spent more for elementary texts, etc., than did Baltimore. The 
next widest departure proportionately was for fuel in the ele- 
mentary schools, but one city, Washington, spending a larger pro- 
portion for this purpose. The amount of the percentage in Baltimore 
was 3 per cent, in Washington 3.2 per cent. 

As regards the proportion of the total expenses devoted to salaries 
of teachers in elementary schools, Baltimore gave more than 8 cities 
and less than 4. The entire list of cities, with the percentages of the 
total expenses, follows: Cleveland, Ohio, 46.8; Washington, D. C, 
50.6; Buffalo, N. Y., 51.4; St. Louis, Mo., 53.7; New Orleans, La., 
57.7; Newark, N. J., 57.8; Chicago, 111., 58; Detroit, Mich., 58.4; 
Baltimore, Md., 58.5; Milwaukee, Wis., 58.6; Minneapolis, Minn., 
60.3; San Francisco, Cal., 61; Los Angeles, Cal., 63.7. 

While, after rent, textbooks, and fuel, the proportion of the total 
expenses paid to elementary teachers constituted the next greatest 
excess above the median, or average, percentage paid for this pur- 
pose by the group, it must not be forgotten that Baltimore had a 
low scale of expenses, and that for this reason the average cost per 
child for these purposes was low as compared with the other cities, 
as will be seen when comparisons of average costs are made. This 
fact also makes the deficiencies in percentages of total expenses all 
the greater from the standpoint of average cost than would appear 
from the average cost figures taken alone. It also follows that should 
the scale of expenses be raised, the percentage of expenses for fuel 
and textbooks would be lowered, for it would not be necessary to 
increase the actual expenses for these purposes, and as the percent- 
ages would be reckoned on the basis of higher total expenses caused 
by the greater expenses for other purposes, those for fuel and text- 
books would be decreased. 

There are three classes of expenses for which, relatively, the 
deficiencies appear almost equally large — supervision of elementary 
schools, salaries of janitors of elementary schools, and supplies for 
janitors of elementary schools — for each of which Baltimore spent a 



FINANCIAL. SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 



41 



less percentage than any of the other cities. For the first she expended 
0.2 per cent, or 0.7 per cent less than the median or average; for the 
second 3.5 per cent, or 1 per cent less than the average; and for the 
last 0.01 per cent, or 1.1 per cent less than the average. 

Unit costs. — With less money to spend, a lower scale of expenses 
was the necessary result. The extended variations from the standard 
distribution of expenses was shown above. It would be expected 
that the items showing low percentages would have low average costs 
and that the items showing high percentages would have the highest 
average costs. But differences in enrollment and other factors affect 
the averages and this does not always follow. On the whole, how- 
ever, the scale of expenses in Baltimore was so low as to cause low 
average costs even for items that have an excess in percentages of 
expenses. 

This is true of total expenses of elementary schools and of salaries 
of teachers in elementary schools, in both of which Baltimore has the 
lowest average costs of all the cities. This is caused in part by the 
large enrollment in the elementary schools. The following tables and 
diagrams show the exact figures and relationships. To have brought 
up the expenses of elementary schools from $18.71 per pupil to the 
median amount for all of the 10 cities included — $26.54 — would have 
required an additional expenditure for the year of about $600,000. 
Of this amount in order to have brought up the average salary of 
teachers from $13.95 to $20.36 per pupil about $500,000 per year 
would have been required. 

Table 6. — Per capita costs of total expenses of elementary schools, based on enrollment. 



Chicago, 111 $26.77 

St. Louis, Mo 23. 17 

Baltimore, Md 18. 71 

Detroit, Mich 26. 31 

Buffalo, N. Y 22.51 

$10.00 



CHICAGO 
ST. LOUIS 

BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 

BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 

NEWARK 

WASHINGTON 

LOS ANGELES 
MINNEAPOLIS 



San Francisco, Cal $33. 57 

Newark, N.J 28.19 

Washington, D. C 31. 32 

Los Angeles, Cal 25. 40 

Minneapolis, Minn 27. 11 



$20.00 



$30.00 











































































































1 

























Fig. 5.— Per capita costs of total expenses of elementary schools, based on enrollment; based on Table 6. 



42 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

Table 7. — Per capita costs of salaries of teachers in elementary schools, based on enrollment. 

Chicago, 111 $20. 06 San Francisco, Cal $26. 43 

St. Louie, Mo 18. 30 Newark, N.J 20. 94 

Baltimore, Md 13.95 Washington, D. C 21.24 

Detroit, Mich 20.20 Los Angeles, Cal 21.48 

Buffalo, N. Y 14.32 Minneapolis, Minn 20.52 



$10.00 



$20.00 



$30.00 






CHICAGO " 

ST. LOUIS 

BALTIMORE 

DETROIT 

BUFFALO 

SAN FRANCISCO 

NEWARK 

WASHINGTON 

LOS ANGELES 

MINNEAPOLIS 



Fig. 6.— Per capita costs of salaries of teachers in elementary schools, based on enrollment; based on 

Table 7. 

The following table brings together these facts and others relating 
to low average costs in elementary schools. While the computations 
are in the rough, they are sufficiently accurate for the purpose. The 
enrollment of the elementary schools in Baltimore is figured as 76,500 
in each case. 



Items. 



Total expenses 

Salaries, teachers' 

Supervision 

Janitors', engineers', etc., salaries 

Janitors' supplies and sundry expenses of maintenance 

and operation .' 

Libraries 

Apparatus and manual training equipment 

Repairs and replacement of equipment 



Median 

average 

costs, all 

cities. 



$26. 54 



20.36 
.365 
1.73 

.37 
.05 
.09 
.20 



Baltimore's 

average 

costs. 



$18.71 



13.95 
.04 
1.32 

Trace. 
.00 
.03 

.14 



Unit 
differences. 



$7.83 



6.41 
.325 
.41 

.37 
.05 
.06 
.06 



Total 
Baltimore 
deficiencies. 



8600,000 



500,000 
25,000 
34,000 

28,000 
4,000 
4,500 
4,500 



The above table indicates that at least $25,000 more should be 
expended annually for supervision of elementary schools in order to 
place Baltimore on a par with other cities. As the average cost per 
pupil for super vision of secondary schools compares favorably with 
the average cost of other cities, Baltimore being the median city, no 
increased expense for this particular branch of supervision is required. 



FINANCIAL. SUPPORT OF THE SYSTEM. 43 

It should be remembered, however, that the percentage of the total 
expenses which was expended in Baltimore for the superintendents' 
office was below the average. 

Expansion in the board of superintendents' office is demanded if 
Baltimore is to meet the standard set by other cities. Our statistics 
do not permit us to fix the exact amount of increase; but it should be 
at least $10,000, and most probably $20,000, per year. This amount 
added to the $25,000 for elementary schools makes a total of from 
$35,000 to $45,000 required for increased supervision of all classes of 
schools in order that Baltimore's practice may be in agreement with 
that of other cities of her class. 

While the percentage of expenses devoted to secondary schools was 
the median amount, the average cost of these schools in Baltimore 
was above the median, due to the comparatively small enrollment in 
the high schools. The median average cost per pupil for the group 
was $64.39, and for Baltimore $72.82, a difference of $8.43 per pupil, 
or an excess of about $31,000. While this shows that the secondary 
schools were more adequately supported for each pupil enrolled than 
any other part of the system, nevertheless it was no more than was 
properly due this type of schools. 

On the other side of the account is an item that must not be lost 
sight of — rent. A large portion of the amount expended for this 
purpose — $47,089 — would have been spent by other cities for other 
objects. 



SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 
SCOPE OF SYSTEM. 

(See diagram opposite.) 

The following statistics show the scope of the system. All of the 
various parts are well adjusted to each other, except the kinder- 
garten which is not an integral part of the system: 

Groups: 

White 19 

Colored 3 

22 

Elementary buildings 105 

Classrooms (approximate) 1. 500 

Preparatory class centers 4 

Preparatory classes 23 

Secondary schools: 

White (female) 2 

White (male) 2 

Colored (male and female) 1 

5 

Training schools: 

White 1 

Colored 1 

2 

Cooking centers 20 

Manual training centers 17 

Kindergarten classes 21 

Ungraded classes 31 

Special classes 5 

Evening schools: 

Secondary — 

White 2 

Colored 1 

3 

Elementary — 

White 9 

Colored 5 

14 

Cooking centers (white) 10 

44 



- 
1 




2 

- 


3 


5 




2 


l.» 


3 


nr 


— ~~i 

3 5 



X 




Y 




Z 


A 




A 




A 


A 




A 




A 


A 




A 




A 


b 




A 




A 


T 






b 












T 







EVENING SCHOOLS 



_i 
O 

o 
I 
o 

CO 



hoole. The small circles, squares, and parallelograms attached by lines to the 
college preparatory course — literary; 2, academic course; 3, business course; 
, primary grades. 



TRAINING SCHOOLS 



IZZ1 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



12 3 



12 3 



12 3 



2 3 5 



HI] HEH 



□ 



PREPARATORY CLASSES 



□ 



□ □ 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY GROUPS 
C L M' N O P 




DAY SCHOOLS 



a 



EVENING SCHOOLS Q. 

the high schools. The small circles, squares, and parallelograms attached by lines to the 



FlO. 7.-Seope of educational system. Each space represents an elementary building, a manual training or cooking center, a preparatory class £« » course m £ehign scnoo^ aJi^ 2, academic course; I!, busi s 

element^ buildings represent kindergartens, ungraded, and special classes, respectively. The .gmficance of each or « ™ b ^ ^Tg^rTnw grades P, prLJy grades * 
4, college preparatory course-technical; 5, trade courses; 6, manual training centers; 7, coobng centers; 8, evening elementary schools, A, all grades, u, gram g 

99173°— Bull. 4—11. (To face page 44.) 



1 TEACHERS OF THEORY 

2 TEACHERS OF PRACTICE 

3 SUPERVISOR OF PRACTICE 

4 ASSISTANT SUPERVISORS OF PRACTICE 



SUPERINTENDENT 



SUPERINTENDENTS 



ASSISTANT TO 
SUPERINTENDENT 



FIRST ASSISTANT 
SUPERINTENDENT 



ASSISTANT 
SUPERINTENDENT 





VICE- 
PRINCIPAL 






TEACHER 





SUBSTITUTE 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
V . _ A 



PREPARATORY CLASSES 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



v 

EVENING SCHOOLS 
99173°— Bull. 4—11. (To face page 45.) 



v 

DAY SCHOOLS 
Fig. 8. — Organization of Education Administration. 



ATTENDANCE 
OFFICERS 




MANUAL 1 RAININQ 



ENQ. GER. CLASSES PARENTAL SCHOOL 

/ 



TO 

DENT 



■Q 




PREPAfi 



ORGANIZATION OF ADMINISTRATION. 

(See diagram opposite.) 

On page 32 may be found a statement of the authority of the 
board of superintendents and of the superintendent. In fact, the 
superintendent and assistant superintendents act as a unit, with the 
superintendent as the directing head and the assistant superintend- 
ents as the extensions of his eyes and hands. The superintendent 
performs at will the identical functions that ordinarily would be 
performed by the assistants. In matters of routine upon which 
policies have been determined, the assistant superintendents act 
with freedom. If an unusual application of an established policy, 
a modification of such policy, or the determination of a new policy 
is involved, the matter is acted upon by the superintendent or after 
a meeting of the board of superintendents. Such conditions require 
very close personal relations among all members of the board of 
superintendents. 

The supervisor of practice and her assistants form one of the three 
divisions of the training-school faculty. For matters pertaining to 
the practice teaching of training-school pupils or other things con- 
nected with the training school they are responsible to the principal 
of the training school, but the assistant supervisors of practice can 
be reached only through the supervisor of practice. Again, the 
supervisor of practice and her assistants are responsible to the 
superintendent alone in matters pertaining to the supervision of 
substitutes after they have completed the training-school course. 

The broken lines leading to and from the group principal indicate 
that the desired relations have not as yet been effectively estab- 
lished. The vice principal exercises little control over the teachers, 
none relating to supervision of instructors. 

45 



PROGRESS OF PUPILS THROUGH THE COURSE. 

(See diagram opposite.) 

Classes are formed each half year. The pupils are divided into 
three groups according to ability to perform the work whenever 
the number of pupils permits such division. Otherwise, into two 
divisions or not at all, as the numbers dictate. In certain groups 
particularly in one, the course of study has been adapted to each 
grade of ability. This may be considered as the ideal toward which 
all groups are approaching, although very imperfectly in some groups. 

Pupils of highest ability are admitted to preparatory classes at the 
close of the sixth grade. Such pupils may complete the twelfth 
grade in five years, except those that enter the Polytechnic Institute. 
Graduates of this school are admitted, however, as sophomores to 
Lehigh and Sibley (Cornell), and those who have completed the 
eleventh grade are admitted as freshmen to these institutions. 
There are no preparatory classes for colored pupils. 

46 



FINANCIAL SUPPOET OF THE SYSTEM. 



47 



CO 

-I 
o 
o 
i 
o 
■J) 

> 
< 

Q 

z 
O 

o 

til 




1 MINIMUM AMOUNT OF WORK 
MEDIUM AMOUNT OF WORK 
MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF WORK 



TWELFTH GRADE B AND A 



ELEVENTH GRADE B AND A 



< 



TENTH 


GRADE B AND A \ 




NINTH 


GRADE B AND A 


• 



H 



EIGHTH GRADE B AND A 




SIXTH GRADE B AND A 



FIFTH GRADE B AND A 



FOURTH GRADE B AND A 



THIRD GRADE B AND A 



KINDERGARTEN 



W%MM\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 


HI 


EK1M 



^iieiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^«^ 



mmm iniiiiiniii^M 




> 

CC 

O W 

\- ^ 

< w 

< 5 

LU <J 

o: 
a. 



Fig. 9. — Progress of pupils through the course of study. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MAIN TOPICS OF THIS REPORT, RELATING TO 
TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY DAY 
SCHOOLS. 

A. THE SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION. 
CONDITIONS IN THE PAST. 

At the time of the adoption of the new charter and the reorganiza- 
tion of the school department, as it appears from such information 
as we have gathered, the system of supervision for the schools of the 
city of Baltimore was altogether inadequate. There were at that time 
(1899) 1,802 teachers employed and 65,289 pupils enrolled in the 
schools. For general supervision of the work of this large number 
of teachers there was one superintendent of schools and one assistant 
superintendent. The size and method of election of the board of 
school commissioners at that time, and the limitations upon the 
powers of the supervisory officers, as well as the very magnitude of the 
school system, rendered it impossible for these two men to give an 
effective professional supervision to the schools of the city. The 
larger business and educational problems of the system as a whole 
naturally absorbed the greater part of their time and energy. 

In the schools themselves there was one principal for each depart- 
ment, male and female, of each grammar and primary school; there 
was usually one principal, and sometimes two, for each floor of a 
building; and not infrequently there were, under this arrangement, 
from two to four principals to a single schoolhouse. Each principal 
taught a class, but where seven or more teachers were under his care, 
an assistant was provided for two hours in the day, during which 
time the principal was expected to supervise the work of the teachers. 
In practice, however, the principals exercised only nominal control 
over the few teachers in their school or division. They were prin- 
cipals in name rather than in fact. In some instances there was 
duplication of work in the same building and, although a uniform 
course of study was in existence, there was little of real organized 
unity. 

There were supervisors of special subjects of instruction (music, 
drawing, sewing, and physical training), and they introduced some- 
thing of uniformity and purpose into the teaching of these special 
subjects in the grades in which they were taught; but their work 

48 



THE SYSTEM OP SUPERVISION. 



49 



was of necessity but little related to the great bulk of elementary 
school instruction and management and probably influenced it but 
little. 

Each high school had a principal of its own, who looked after its 
supervision. These schools, however, were but loosely related to the 
elementary schools. For a long time the high schools examined the 
pupils coming from the elementary schools to see if they were pre- 
pared for high-school instruction. 

PRESENT POLICY AND PRACTICE. 

With the reorganization of the school system following the adop- 
tion of the charter of 1898, a new system of school supervision was 
instituted. An experienced superintendent of schools was called from 
another city. The different schools were organized into a number of 
school groups, and two additional assistant superintendents were 
after a time employed. For each of the groups of schools a group 
principal, devoting all of his time to supervision and work related 
thereto and made responsible directly to the superintendent of 
schools, was put in charge. At present 104 of the 105 elementary- 
school buildings are arranged in 21 groups (18 white and 3 colored). 
These groups vary in size from one of 48 to one of 105 teachers, the 
average being 72 teachers. 

The following table shows the number of elementary-school build- 
ings and the number of teachers in each group : 



Groups. 



A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

I 

J 

K 

L (not a group; 

M 

N 



Build- 
ings. 


Teachers. 


6 


79 


4 


63 


4 


56 


5 


105 


4 


75 


6 


71 


4 


74 


4 


86 


5 


69 


1 


19 


6 


67 


6 


92 



Groups. 



Teachers. 



O 

P 

Q 

R 

U 

V 

w 

X (colored) 
Y (colored) 
Z (colored). 

Total 




A group of schools consists ordinarily of a central school, enrolling 
children in the upper grades, and a number of primary schools, whose 
pupils go to the central school after completing three or four years of 
work. In the newer and larger buildings, however, all of the grades 
are commonly found under one roof. All of the schools of a group 
are regarded as practically one school, being managed by one (group) 
principal. In disciplinary and executive matters the principal is 
assisted by one vice principal in each building. Each teacher is 
directly responsible to the principal, and through him to the superin- 
tendent. 



99173— Bull. 4—11 



50 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

The introduction of the group system of supervision marked an 
advance toward effective supervision for the schools of Baltimore. 
The good results obtained under it were evident to the commission 
and were frequently mentioned by teachers who have worked under 
both systems. It has brought into the school system its first unify- 
ing supervision, except in the few special subjects of instruction for 
which special supervisors were already employed. 

The number of such supervisors, compared with 12 years ago. is 
shown by the following table: 

Special supervisors. 

Music supervisors 

Drawing supervisors 

Assistants in drawing 

Sewing supervisors 

Physical-training supervisors 

Physical-training teachers 

Manual-training supervisors 



Totals. 




The special supervisors travel about from group to group, meeting 
the teachers of the city by grades rather than by groups, and in- 
structing them in subject matter as well as in methods of presenta- 
tion. The subjects covered by these special supervisors, however, 
added together do not represent more than 20 per cent of the 
work of the eight years of elementary-school instruction. For the 
80 per cent or more of instruction remaining, and involving nearly 
all of the general administrative problems of group and school 
supervision, dependence must be had almost entirely upon the 
group principals. 

So far as close personal supervision of the elementary schools by 
the superintendent of public instruction and his assistant superin- 
tendents is concerned, the size and extent of the school system of 
the city of Baltimore (about 1,550 teachers and supervisors being 
employed, with about 80,000 children enrolled, and the 105 ele- 
mentary-school buildings being scattered over an area of approx- 
imately 30 square miles) make this manifestly impossible. If the 
superintendent and his three assistants should attempt to spend 
half a day with each teacher in the schools, and should do nothing 
else during the time the schools are in session during each year, it 
would require nearly four years and a half for each one to make the 
round once. It would require more than a year to make the round, 
if each teacher were visited by only one member of the board of 
superintendents, the members of that board devoting the whole of 
each school day to this business exclusively. 



THE SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION. 



51 



Under these conditions the board of superintendents can at best 
only indicate a policy and procedure, in general terms, and must of 
necessity depend very largely upon the several group principals to 
carry such policy and procedure into effect within their respective 
groups. The group principals thus become, in a way, the key to the 
whole situation. In so far as they are educationally efficient and 
assume a helpful and cooperative attitude toward the school adminis- 
tration, much can be accomplished; but in so far as they are lacking 
in educational insight and effectiveness, or assume a different attitude, 
little or nothing of a constructive nature can be made effective. 
(See Fig. 8.) 

CRITICISM. 

The commission has been impressed with the large amount of general 
constructive work which has been accomplished, under such condi- 
tions, by the board of superintendents, with the cooperation of group 
principals. The first unfavorable criticism which we would present 
is that the supervision is inadequate in amount. This will appear 
from the following table, showing the provision for school supervision 
in Baltimore along with that in other cities with which Baltimore 
may fairly be compared: 

Table 8. — Ratio of teachers to supervising officers in cities of 300,000 population and 

over, 1910. 



Teachers. 1 


Supervising 
officers. 2 


16,689 


926 


6,104 


286 


4,297 


260 


1,987 


124 


2,779 


95 


1,936 


122 


1,778 


56 


1,371 


53 


1,399 


101 


1,511 


79 


1,034 


96 


1,150 


70 


1,238 


118 


1,266 


64 


1,029 


95 


1,659 


43 


1,227 


83 


1,082 


73 



Number of 
teachers 

to one 
supervising 

officer. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 

Pittsburg 

Detroit 

Buffalo 

San Francisco 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 

Newark 

New Orleans . 
Washington . . 
Los Angeles. . 
Minneapolis. . 



1 Number of teachers in kindergartens, day elementary and high schools, schools for the training of 
teachers, schools for exceptional children, and teachers of special subjects. 

'Number of superintendents, associate and assistant superintendents, principals of elementary and high 
schools, and schools for the training of teachers, who devote half or more than half of their time to supervision. 

Some teachers were inclined to assert that too much uncertainty 
exists regarding the exact policy of the superintendent in respect to 
some important matters of instruction and administration. It would 



52 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



undoubtedly be well to make use of a more effective means for keep- 
ing the teachers in touch with the policy of the system. The usual 
method employed for acquainting teachers with the wishes of the 
superintendent is the circular of information which is mailed to vice 
principals, and by them posted on the bulletin board. Teachers' 
meetings are confined to a few groups, and meetings for teachers of 
particular grades are now unusual. To bring this all about, addi- 
tional general supervisory officers should be provided. 

The group system of school administration, while possessing cer- 
tain advantages from the standpoint of the grouping and grading of 
children, is nevertheless at best a somewhat imperfect plan of school 
supervision. It is found in only a few cities — Boston, New Haven, 
Washington, Indianapolis, and Baltimore. Except in Washington, in 
none of the cities using the plan do the group principals have so 
many teachers to look after as in Baltimore, as is shown b} r the follow- 
ing table: 





Cities. 




Number of teachers to the group. 




Average. 


Highest. 


Lowest. 








72 
C 1 ) 
30 
45 
91.6 


105 
( l ) 
50 
55 

113 


48 








0) 

15 














35 








85 














1 No data at hand. 









The general practice elsewhere is to have a principal for each 
school building, and wherever the building has 10 or more teachers 
the rules of boards of education for the different cities generally pro- 
vide that the principal shall have all of his time free for supervisory 
work. 

We find that a teacher in Baltimore rarely submits the program 
of studies in her grade to any superior officer. There are often 
uneconomical arrangements of subjects, such as a penmanship period 
directly after opening exercises, or a physical-culture period follow- 
ing a recess. 

Our second unfavorable criticism is that the supervision exercised 
by the several group principals seems to us extremely variable in 
quality, and accordingly lacking in anything like uniform professional 
effectiveness. 

Group autonomy is one of the marked characteristics of the schools 
of Baltimore. It seems a safe generalization to say that there are 
about as many school systems as there are group principals. In 
many matters it is very desirable that a freedom of action on the 
part of group principals should exist. A clear distinction, however, 
should be made between liberty to do more than is required and 



THE SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION. 53 

license to do as one pleases. Local and individual liberty has in the 
past been excessive in the schools of Baltimore. The school admin- 
istration has been compelled to proceed with great caution, to use 
suggestion instead of authority, and to exercise an undue amount 
of patience in dealing with individuals. What superintendents of 
schools elsewhere are accustomed to ask of principals and teachers, 
and to expect them to do — not because it is a command, but because 
the judgment and larger knowledge of the executive officer is re- 
spected, and his authority is upheld — the superintendent in Balti- 
more must offer largely as a suggestion, explain its merits to his 
group principals, and then frequently wait for them voluntarily to 
put the suggestion into effect. The different school groups naturally 
reflect to a large degree the spirit and attitude of the group principal. 
In the majority of the groups there is an apparent willingness on the 
part of the principals to cooperate with the superintendent in mat- 
ters which are deemed best for the system. In some cases, however, 
there is an apparent lack of readiness to follow explicit directions. 
It seems to us clear that in some of the groups the group supervi- 
sion fails to second, vigorously and intelligently, the supervision 
from the central office. Such supervision is that of the letter rather 
than that of the spirit, and the teachers of such groups, though faith- 
ful and earnest, lack that pedagogic insight and professional enthusi- 
asm which is so contagious when possessed by a school principal. 

We may repeat that the commission does not concern itself with 
individuals. Its criticism is wholly impersonal, such observation as 
it has made of individual instances being used solely for the forma- 
tion of judgments concerning the system as a whole, these judgments 
in turn serving as the basis for recommendations concerning possible 
improvements. 

Baltimore has now to integrate the different school groups into 
a united system. Between the schools of each group there is a 
uniformity that does not exist between the schools of different 
groups. In other words, the unification which has thus far been 
attained is a vertical one. The groups need now to be brought 
together by a horizontal unification. 

RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The commission believes that one of the most pressing needs of the 
schools in Baltimore is a very material increase in the supervisory 
force. While the commission does not desire to make too specific 
recommendations, it does, however, believe that it should indicate a 
few of the more obvious and immediate needs. These needs may be 
enumerated as follows : 

(a) An increase in the number of assistant superintendents, one of 
whom might be the principal of the white teachers' training school. 



54 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

(6) The creation of a staff of primary school supervisors and some 
increase in the staff of special supervisors. 

(c) In all elementary schools having 20 or more teachers, with all 
of the grades represented, it might be well to have a principal to 
devote all of his or her time to the supervision of instruction. 

The question of cost naturally enters into all of these proposals. 
In a previous section (pp. 42, 43) it was shown that in order to spend 
an amount comparable to the median amount spent by other cities for 
supervision in 190S, Baltimore would have been required to spend 
from $35,000 to $45,000 more than was then used for tins purpose. 
It has been estimated by the commission that the total expense of 
securing the additional assistant superintendents and supervisors 
suggested under a and b would be less than $35,000. This would 
represent an added one-fourth of 1 per cent to the present cost of the 
school system, an amount that is insignificant when compared with 
the benefits to be derived from it. 

The commission recommends that the authority of the board of 
superintendents in all matters pertaining to supervision should be 
materially strengthened. The policy of suggestion and recommenda- 
tion which this board has heretofore followed has much to recommend 
it, but it has decided limitations, and progress under it, though sub- 
stantial, is frequently slow. It is desirable that the schools of Balti- 
more make more rapid progress than has thus far been made, and 
one of the means for accomplishing this must be this increased 
authority. 

It may not be out of place for the commission to suggest that in 
the primary schools the superintendent needs for his assistants a 
small group of capable women of experience. The work of primary 
schools is essentially and naturally the work of women. It is need- 
less to say that such women should be well trained, broad-minded, 
sincere, and sympathetic. To secure such women good salaries 
must be paid, for the supply throughout the country is by no means 
equal to the demand. 

In order to secure persons properly qualified for all of these impor- 
tant positions, larger salaries than are now paid should be provided. 
There should be no mistaken local pride about going outside of Balti- 
more to secure such persons, and it would be well if some were drawn 
to Baltimore from other city school systems. The new points of view 
and the new methods of work which such individuals would bring 
would tend to greatly improve the school system. 



THE TEACHING FORCE AND ITS TRAINING. 55 

B. THE TEACHING FORCE AND ITS TRAINING. 
CONDITIONS IN THE PAST. 

The commission has been repeatedly and reliably informed that 
prior to 1899 considerations other than special aptitude for the work 
of teaching frequently controlled the election of new teachers. No 
professional preparation was required, and then, as now, the city of 
Baltimore furnished the entire supply of new teachers. Many of 
those who began teaching under good principals, and who possessed 
the right attitude toward the work, developed into very good teach- 
ers. On the other hand, those who received little help or encourage- 
ment, or those to whom the work of teaching made no strong appeal, 
became formal, stereotyped, and professionally unprogressive teach- 
ers. The commission has met examples of each kind of teacher in 
the schools of Baltimore. 

Of the 1,788 teachers in the service of the city of Baltimore on 
January 1, 1911, the terms of service by decades are as follows: 

Entered prior to 1860 '. 5 

Entered between — 

1860 and 1869 52 

1870 and 1879 137 

1880 and 1889 292 

1890 and 1899 535 

1900 and 1905 329 

1905 and 1911 438 

More than 1,000 of the teachers now employed began their service 
prior to 1900. These, with few exceptions, have received their entire 
professional training while serving in the schools of Baltimore, and 
consequently have no intimate knowledge of the practice in other 
large cities. 

Shortly after the adoption of the new charter, in 1898, efforts were 
made to improve the professional condition of the teachers. These 
efforts extended in four directions : 

(1) Improved and increased supervision. (2) City training schools 
for teachers. (3) Competitive examinations for admission to the 
eligible list of teachers. (4) Promotional examinations for teachers 
in service. 

The first of these means was treated in Section A; the remaining 
three belong to this section. 

CITY TRAINING SCHOOLS. 

In September, 1851, the eastern and western normal classes were 
organized. They were established for the benefit of teachers; and 
the graduates of the female high schools having passed the full term 
and desiring to adopt the profession of teaching were allowed to 
remain another year in this class to receive instruction in the theory 



56 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

and practice of teaching. All newly appointed teachers were required 
to attend one of these classes for six months. These classes were 
discontinued in 1858. 

In 1872 the board of commissioners organized a normal class for 
the purpose of giving instruction in the theory and practice of teach- 
ing. This was placed under the supervision of an experienced teacher 
with a corps of competent assistants. The class met on Saturdays. 
This class was continued until 1881, at which time "the exercises of 
the normal class were suspended during the year in consequence of 
objections made to the methods of instruction." Almost immediately 
there was a strong agitation for the establishment of a teachers' 
training school. Year after year the board of school commissioners 
renewed their recommendation on this matter to the city council, 
but without effect. The city continued to face a somewhat unusual 
situation in regard to the supply of teachers; it could not depend 
upon strong State normal schools for the training of its teachers; and 
the low salaries offered, coupled with the strong feeling of local pride, 
prevented the city from drawing trained teachers from other cities. 
In 1900, a concurrence of favorable circumstances enabled the city 
to start a training school for the first year at an expense of a little 
over $3,000, and arrangements were made for the opening of such a 
school in January, 1901. Under the circumstances, the only recourse 
was to establish such schools for both races and to require that all 
future teachers complete the course of preparation provided by these 
schools, or present evidence of having equivalent preparation. 

The principal of the Teachers' Training School for white teachers 
has a triple faculty of assistants, namely, (1) the assistant teachers 
of pedagogic subject matter and method in the training school itself; 
(2) the teachers of practice classes and the vice principals with whom 
student teachers are placed for practice teaching; (3) the supervisor 
of practice teaching and the assistant supervisors of practice teaching, 
in so far as their work concerns the practice teaching of student 
teachers. The principal of the Teachers' Training School has author- 
ity in all matters pertaining to candidates for admission to the service, 
both as to theory study and practice teaching, from the time of the 
candidate's entrance into the junior year of the training school up 
to the time of the candidate's passing the "professional examination" 
which gives admission to the substitute list. 

At first the training course covered but one year; later it was 
extended to two years, and graduation from a high school was required 
for admission. One-half of the time is devoted to practice teaching 
in the schools under the direction of practice teachers. The course 
is planned as a combination of theory and practice. It aims to give 
technical training and to develop professional aptitude, and thereby 
to assure growth in scholarship and professional skill. The school 



THE TEACHING FORCE AND ITS TRAINING. 57 

grants no diplomas of graduation. Should the number completing 
the training-school course ever largely exceed the number needed by 
the schools, a condition which may exist under an increased salary 
scale, the advantage of this provision will be apparent. Those who 
complete the training-school course are placed on the eligible list. 

ADMISSION TO THE ELIGIBLE LIST OF TEACHERS. 

In 1887 the board of school commissioners passed a rule which 
made those who were graduated from the city college, high schools, and 
State normal school with the requisite average, and those who passed 
the semiannual examinations, eligible for appointment as teachers for 
10 years; if selected for promotion, they were eligible to any position 
in a primary or grammar school. The records show that the rules 
were frequently suspended in order to allow the names of applicants 
to be placed upon the list of eligibles without complying with the rules 
relating to the eligibility of candidates. At present every candidate 
for a position in the elementary schools of Baltimore must pass the 
competitive examination, winch consists of two parts. The first part 
is professional in nature and covers, as far as possible, the prescribed 
course in the teachers' training schools of the city. The second part 
consists of a test in actual teaching done under ordinary classroom 
conditions; first as substitute of class 2, and afterwards as substitute 
of class 1. After the candidates have demonstrated ability as sub- 
stitutes in class 2, the superintendent is required to place them in 
class 1 in such numbers as the needs of the service may require. 
Candidates serve as substitutes in class 1 for one year. The records 
of both parts of the examination are of equal value in fixing the final 
average assigned the candidates when they are placed upon the 
graded list. The superintendent of public instruction reports the 
names of all candidates placed upon the graded list to the board of 
school commissioners. He also reports the names of all substitutes 
of class 1 who fail to demonstrate their aptness for teaching at the end 
of the year's trial, with a recommendation for such action as he may 
deem advisable. All permanent appointments of teachers in the 
elementary schools are made from the regular substitutes, and vacan- 
cies in the staff of substitutes are filled from those who have the 
highest rating on the graded lists. 

PROMOTIONAL EXAMINATIONS FOR TEACHERS IN SERVICE. 

In 1902 the board of school commissioners had an unexpended 
balance of about $10,000. It was decided to use this in increasing the 
salaries of the best teachers hi the school system. On the assumption 
that the good teachers were equally divided between the various 
groups, each group principal was asked to name, in order of merit, a 
few of his best teachers, who had been teaching not less than o years 



58 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

and who were receiving salaries less than $600 per year. The board 
of superintendents visited the teachers thus named and others and 
selected 100 who were invited to take an examination which might be 
written in answer to set questions subject to the usual limitations of 
time and place, or which might take the form of an oral discussion of a 
paper of not fewer than 1,500 words prepared for the purpose. In all 
cases the second plan was chosen — the thesis and its defense. The 
increase in salary was based on merit as determined chiefly by inspec- 
tion of regular school work. The examination served merely as an 
evidence of the possession of ideas and of the ability to express those 
ideas in clear and concise English. After some rejections and sub- 
stitutions 100 teachers were thus chosen, each of whom received an 
increase in salary. 

In 1904, 150 teachers were advanced in the same way. In 1905 
the board of school commissioners received an appropriation of 
$78,000 to be used in increasing the salaries of teachers. At this 
time the so-called promotional examination system was adopted. 
In addition to the preparation of a paper such as had heretofore been 
required, teachers desiring to compete were now required to pass an 
examination in English. It is stated that the reason for introducing 
this part of the examination was the very poor English used in many 
of the papers which had been submitted. The examination now 
consisted of two parts, the first of which was an examination in 
English and the second a professional examination similar in nature 
to the first examinations that were given. By these examinations 
teachers were promoted in salary but not in position. The maximum 
annual salary for teachers who had not taken the promotional ex- 
amination was $504. When part 1 of the promotional examination 
was passed, the teacher's salary advanced to $552 the first year, and 
unless an adverse report on her work was made, increase was auto- 
matic to $600 the second year. After receiving $600 for at least one 
year, those who had passed part 1 of the promotional examinations 
and who continued to do satisfactory work were eligible to advance 
to $700 per year by three annual increments of $24, $36, and $40, 
respectively, provided they had passed part 2 of the promotional ex- 
aminations. Certain provisions were made for those teachers who 
had been in service prior to the establishment of these examinations. 
In no case was the salary of a teacher decreased. 

These promotional examinations and the scale of salaries arc still 
in force. The records seem to indicate that almost from the first 
there was a strong opposition on the part of the teachers to the 
examinations for promotion. The following table shows the number 
of those who have passed parts 1 and 2 of the examinations from 1903 
to 1911, inclusive: 



THE TEACHING FOECE AND ITS TRAINING. 



59 





Years. 


Part 1. 


Part 2. 


Years. 


Part 1. 


Part 2. 


1903 


109 
145 
20 


: 1908 

1909 

1910 

I 1911 


50 

50 
54 

18 


24 


1904 


• 27 


1905 


35 


1906... 


14 


1907.. 




70 


99 





While but few large cities are reported as having promotional 
examinations for certain increases in salaries, this small number 
includes some of the most progressive educational systems of this 
country. The list so far as our information goes is as follows : Chicago, 
111., Boston, Mass., Baltimore, Md., Cincinnati, Ohio, Kansas City, 
Mo., and Paterson, N. J. 

CRITICISM AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

(a) Training schools. — The training school for colored teachers is 
well located. It has the beginnings of an equipment for teaching and 
has good practice-school facilities. The training school for white 
teachers, however, is in a building poorly adapted for the purpose of 
a training school. It is unattractive and poorly equipped. The sal- 
aries in this school are not what they should be to attract and hold 
the best teachers. There has been a lack of coordination between the 
different divisions of the training school faculty. The students who 
become student teachers find that the methods and devices they have 
been taught by the theory teachers are not always those which the 
supervisors of practice require. 

These training schools are now and probably will continue to be 
essential to the building up and the preservation of a real professional 
spirit among the members of the teaching force. It is important, 
therefore, that they should be made equal to the best of their kind. 
The training school for white teachers should be in a building suited 
to its purposes. 

It should be officered and equipped in such a way that it can be 
made the center of the educational life of the public-school system. 
Among them should always be some who have had experience outside 
of the schools of Baltimore. The amount of purely apprenticeship 
work done during the two years of the course might to advantage be 
somewhat shortened, and in its place more attention be given to such 
subjects as will enlarge the professional conceptions of the students. 
It is greatly to be desired that in the pursuit of such subjects they 
should gain a clear idea of the service of education to a democratic 
society, a certain loyalty to educational institutions and ideals, and 
a good beginning for long-continued growth in the occupation of 
teaching. In order to make these changes as effective as possible it 
is desirable that the influence of the training school in the supervision 
of its graduates after they have left the school should be increased. 



60 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



? The commission believes that opportunities for study on the part 
of teachers in service should be extended. It therefore heartily 
approves of an arrangement which would give the superintendent 
power to establish such classes. These classes should be formed in 
both pedagogical and academic subjects. In the opinion of the com- 
mission attendance upon professional classes should be made com- 
pulsory for those teachers whose work is not reasonably satisfactory. 

One of the great needs of the schools in Baltimore and elsewhere is 
more accurate and broader scholarship as well as professional attain- 
ments on the part of teachers. Progressive teachers recognize these 
facts and are ready to respond if opportunities are presented. The 
fact that a great university and a woman's college of high grade are 
located in Baltimore gives the school authorities exceptional advan- 
tages for the organization of study classes. 

(6) Eligible list. — The commission recommends that increased 
attention be given to securing teachers who have had training and 
experience outside of the schools of Baltimore. We believe that if 
Baltimore could draw into its teaching force a number of first-class 
teachers from the better school systems of the United States there 
would in a short time be a general change for the better in the outlook 
of the teaching force. The superintendent should be free to go out- 
side of the city in the selection of teachers, in accordance with the pre- 
scribed standard of qualifications. 

(c) Salaries. — The salaries paid the teachers in the elementary 
schools of Baltimore are decidedly low, as compared with the ordinary 
scale of living expense for those in an occupation of this grade of 
responsibility, and as compared with the salary schedules of other 
cities. The most significant facts that we are able to present by way 
of a comparison between Baltimore and other cities in this particular 
are set forth in the following table : 

Table 9. — Salaries of elementary school teachers in cities of 300,000 population and over. 1 



Cities. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 

Pittsburg 

Detroit 



Minimum. 


Maximum. 


f 2 S600 
1 3 900 


8 $1,400 


3 2,400 


650 


1,125 


520 


920 


600 


1,032 


552 


936 


500 


1,000 


444 


700 


450 


900 


500 


1,000 



Cities. 



Buffalo , 

San Francisco . 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 

Newark 

New Orleans.. 
Washington... 
Los Angeles... 
Minneapolis.. . 



Minimum. 



840 
540 
600 
580 
450 
600 
744 
600 



Maximum. 



$900 
1,224 
1,020 
1,000 
1,100 
700 
1,350 
1,080 
1,000 



1 Compiled from data supplied by superintendents. ! Women. 3 Men. 

In view of these comparisons it seems clear that Baltimore will 
need to provide for a considerable increase in the salaries of these 
teachers. It would cany us beyond the proper scope of this report if 



THE TEACHING FORCE AND ITS TRAINING. 61 

we were to advise concerning the salary scale that should be adopted. 
The figures presented above will, however, be found suggestive at this 
point. 

(d) Promotional examinations. — The action of the board of school 
commissioners in providing that an increase in salary at certain points 
should depend upon the passing of the so-called promotional exami- 
nations, has given rise to one of the most acute of the controversies 
which have of late affected the Baltimore school system. We have 
seen with regret many indications that personal animosities have 
entered so largely into this controversy as to have overshadowed the 
simple question of administration which is involved. The com- 
mission, however, is not concerned with any of the personal aspects of 
the matter, but only with its general bearings. We have very 
attentively considered these general bearings in the light of argument 
freely presented from both sides of the question. 

The question seems to us an incidental rather than a fundamental 
one. The permanent interest of the public in the schools is the inter- 
est in a good system of education. It is interested in seeing the 
teachers receive such salaries, within reasonable limits as will con- 
tribute to this result; and it is interested in such requirements 
regarding teachers' qualifications as will best assure this result. 
The Baltimore school authorities have under their direction a body 
of teachers, in permanent tenure, who show serious inequalities as 
regards teacher qualifications. Having at their disposal only a lim- 
ited fund for the increase of teachers' salaries, they apparently used 
their best endeavor to give the increase to the better equipped and the 
more progressive of those teachers. Such action seems to us abun- 
dantly justified. 

That the opposition of a large number of the teachers to the plan 
adopted for that purpose should have become a serious element in the 
situation, even reaching the stage of a deadlock, through the refusal 
of many of them to qualify for the higher salary on the conditions 
prescribed, presents a practical administrative problem, to be dealt 
with in practical ways. That is, the difference seems to us to relate 
more to a method than to a principle. A careful consideration of the 
arguments presented by those in opposition to these examinations 
fails to reveal any deeper principle than that the plan will cause dis- 
satisfaction on the part of those who under its operation do not 
receive the desired increase in salary. As a mere question of method, 
the difference seems to us one that should be settled in conference, 
with a readiness to make concessions from both sides. 

A real principle lies back of the question of method, and it is one 
concerning which there should be no difference of opinion. It is the 
principle that the schools should render the best possible service to 



62 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

all of the people and that the teaching force should be made as effi- 
cient as possible to this end. 

The board of school commissioners and the company of teachers 
who have opposed the promotional examinations should both keep 
this principle in view. And mutual concessions, if such are made, 
should aim at the best working method that can be devised for carry- 
ing this principle into effect. 

CHARACTER OF THE TEACHING IN GENERAL. 

It has been difficult in the brief time at the disposal of the com- 
mission to form a wholly satisfactory estimate of the character of 
the teaching in the elementary schools. There are so many elements 
which make up efficient teaching that it would be necessary to make 
a prolonged stay in the schools in order to form accurate conclusions 
as to the effect of the teaching upon the children of the city. 

The commission, however, is able to state some of the conclusions 
it reached as a result of its study and observation in the large num- 
ber of schools which the different members visited. 

First. There is excellent teaching to be seen in the Baltimore 
schools. Such teaching is by no means common here; but it should 
be added that nowhere is such teaching to be found to the extent 
that might be wished. Fine teaching is an art, in Baltimore and 
elsewhere, and is therefore rare. 

Here and there, in both lower and higher grades, the commission 
found clear, intelligent, forceful teaching, and correspondingly alert, 
active children who are making very substantial progress in their 
work. In certain districts this fine teaching was more in evidence 
than in other districts. 

Second. There is some very poor teaching; not in a large number 
of schools, but nevertheless in too large a number, if the interests of 
the children are paramount. In a few classes it is questionable 
whether the children are gaining anything from their school life. 
This poor teaching is due largely to the presence in the schools of a 
few teachers whose usefulness has seriously declined, whatever their 
former usefulness may have been. In a half dozen rooms the chil- 
dren were actually being harmed by being in school, for they were 
contracting habits of idleness, inattention, and disorder. Some way 
should be found of dispensing with teachers of this class. 

Third. There is a large amount of teaching which may be classed 
as ordinary or mediocre. It is mechanical and perfunctory. The 
work is without that life and spirit which is found in schools of high 
rank in Baltimore and elsewhere. In these schools is to be found a 
routine of exercises in which the children do not appear to be vitally 
interested. 

The work of these teachers, however, is not unproductive of good 
results. The order in their rooms, as a rule, is good; the discipline 



BALTIMOEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 63 

can not be seriously criticized; the children have confidence in the 
teachers; the teachers are interested in their work. The pupils, too, 
make progress in the conventional work of the school. The schools 
are # worth to the community much more than they cost. 

The point which the commission seeks to emphasize is this, that 
while the work of this class of teachers is of value, it is not so valuable 
as might be wished, nor as might reasonably be expected. 

It is important to ask what is the underlying reason for the con- 
dition one finds in these schools. From such study as the commission 
has been able to give to the matter, we are of the opinion that it is 
largely due to the presence in the schools of a large number of 
untrained teachers. The schools still suffer from the fact that the 
systematic training of teachers did not begin in Baltimore until 1900. 
No other American city of importance was so late in establishing a 
normal training school of the modern type as was Baltimore. As a 
consequence it is probably true that no other American city of the 
same class as Baltimore has so large a proportion of untrained 
teachers in the service of the elementary schools. 

The commission is not unaware of the fact that there are some 
excellent teachers in the Baltimore schools who were untrained for 
teaching. These are teachers of natural ability who have been quick 
to learn from experience. The fact remains, however, that the 
preparation afforded by a well-conducted training school is needed 
for schoolroom efficiency, taking ordinary high-school graduates as 
they are. Of course the theory that a graduate of a high school is 
fit without special training to teach school has long ago been discarded 
in Baltimore, as it has been elsewhere. 

In view of these general considerations regarding teaching and 
teachers, especial attention is called to the considerations brought 
forward in the preceding sections touching provisions for the improve- 
ment of the teaching force of the city. 

C. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 
HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 

As early as 1855 a definite curriculum had been set for the public 
schools of Baltimore. In the elemental schools, that is, the primary 
and grammar schools, provision was made for teaching reading, pen- 
manship, spelling, etymology, grammar, composition, arithmetic, 
algebra, geometiy, mensuration, bookkeeping, geography, natural 
philosophy, and history. Algebra, geometry, mensuration, and book- 
keeping were omitted in the schools for girls. 

In 1883 the board adopted a detailed course of study covering 
three } r ears for the primary schools and three years for the grammar 
schools. At that time arrangements were made for teaohing draw- 
ing, although drawing had been taught in the high schools since 1846 



64 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

and in the primary schools since 1872. Vocal music had been taught 
since 1843. 

In September, 1885, a course was adopted which provided for eight 
years in primary and grammar schools. In this course provision was 
made for elementary science, including physiology, and United States 
history, which was introduced in the seventh year. The first part of 
algebra and four books in geometry were taught. 

The course of study used in 1898 provides for the definite teaching 
of sewing to girls, beginning in the third year. This subject had been 
introduced in 1892. 

A manual training school was established in 1884. The sixth, sev- 
enth, and eighth grades were taught in this school. Later these 
grades were dropped from this school and provision for teaching 
manual training to the boys was made in certain schools which are 
known as manual training centers. In these centers girls are taught 
cooking or domestic science. 

Physical training has had a place in the curriculum since 1898. 

It will be seen by an examination of this list of subjects taught in 
the elementary schools and comparing it with a corresponding list 
taught at the present time, that no subjects have been added to the 
curriculum since 189S. 

It is somewhat commonly assumed that the schools are now 
attempting to teach more subjects than were taught 10 years ago. 
This assumption is not borne out by the facts. 

The subjects now taught in the Baltimore schools correspond to 
those commonly taught in other cities, large and small, throughout 
the countr}'. 

The following subjects occur in the Baltimore course of study and 
in that of each of the cities with which Baltimore is compared: 
English, including language and composition, spelling, grammar, and 
penmanship; history; geography and nature study; arithmetic; 
music; physiology and hygiene; drawing; and manual training and 
domestic science. New York outlines a course in ethics; Chicago has 
a "Chicago course" and also a course in humaneness; Boston has a 
moral-training course; Buffalo has a course in agriculture which is a 
continuation of the nature-study course. The fact that these sub- 
jects are named specifically in only the courses of study for the above 
cities does not mean that other cities are not giving some attention to 
them, but the work is not as definite as it is in the cities above named. 

METHODS EMPLOYED IN MAKING THE COURSES OF STUDY. 

The methods employed in making the present courses of study for 
English, mathematics, geography, and history are noteworthy. All 
grade teachers through their principals were notified to criticize the old 
courses of study, and to offer suggestions for improvement by omit- 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 65 

ting, adding, or simplifying requirements. These suggestions were 
given to committees of members of the superintendents' round table 
as the basis from which new outlines were to be derived. These new 
outlines, tentatively worked out by the committee, were put into 
multigraph form and abundantly discussed in round-table meetings, 
and also in group meetings of the various grade teachers concerned. 
The new outlines were then put into the schools for one year's trial, 
and at the end of the trial 7>~ear further suggestions for improving 
the same were requested. The board of superintendents embodied 
the best of these suggestions in the outlines before finally presenting 
them to the school board for adoption. Following the adoption of 
the outlines the board of superintendents freely answered any query 
coming from the grade teachers. Whenever a query was received 
the answer was put in multigraph form and went to all of the teachers 
of that particular grade. 

TIME ALLOTMENTS IN THE SEVERAL GRADES. 

Each teacher in the Baltimore schools is required to post a schedule 
of her work in a conspicuous place in the room so that the children 
may see it and that the principal and other supervisors may learn, 
without interrupting the teacher, when to come to the room to observe 
a given exercise. The only explicit directions given the teachers in 
regard to the time allotments are contained in the following extract 
from the general directions. 

Except in the few instances * * * , or for extraordinary reasons, the following 
time limits are not to be exceeded: Grade one, 15 minutes; grades two, three, and 
four, 20 minutes; grades five and six, 25 minutes; and grades seven and eight, 30 
minutes. Painting, drawing, or construction may require 30 minutes in grades one 
to six. 

It has been contrary to the policy of the superintendent to pre- 
scribe the amount of time per week that a teacher must devote to the 
various subjects, excepting drawing, music, sewing, and physical 
training. In practice, however, the commission has found that the 
suggested schedules in the Supplement to the Outline of Studies for 
the Elementary Schools, 1906-7, is very generally followed by the 
teachers. Its use at any rate is sufficiently general to warrant the 
commission in forming a schedule of time allotments according to 
these schedules. The time allotments in particular subjects is given 
in connection with the treatment of the subjects themselves and need 
not appear at this point. The following table shows the percentage 
of the school time allotted in the suggested schedules to the subjects 
that are generally called the essentials, namely, English, including 
reading, writing, spelling, and language; arithmetic, geography, and 
history, which are here designated as the "old" subjects. Similar 
99173— Bull. 4—11 5 



66 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



allotments in certain other subjects are also shown, which are here 
designated as "new" subjects, such as drawing, manual training, etc. 

Table 10. — Percentage of school time devoted to old subjects and new subjects. 



Cities. 


Old 

subjects. 


New 
subjects. 


Cities. 


Old 
subjects. 


New 
subjects. 




62. 48 
52.60 

67. 60 
70. S7 
73. 36 
79.55 


37.52 
47.40 
32.40 
29. 13 
20.64 
20.45 




77.90 
81.00 
83.80 
79.90 
75. 45 
76.69 


22.10 






19.00 






16.20 






20.10 




Milwaukee 


24.55 






23. 31 









One feature in the derivation of the time allotments in Baltimore 
deserves particular attention. The time allotment given in the 
tables is that suggested for the year 1906-7. In the first grade the 
suggested allotments covered both forenoon and afternoon sessions. 
At present the first grade pupils are not required to come back in the 
afternoon in most instances except for the special drill work. This of 
course influences the amount of time devoted to the various subjects. 
The proportion of time, however, used for the various subjects is not 
influenced by this change in the length of the school day. Since com- 
parison is to be made with other cities in which the day consists of 
two sessions, it has seemed advisable to leave the allotment in the 
first grade in Baltimore as it stands in the suggested schedules. 
Therefore, the actual time indicated in the tables will not be correct, 
but the percentage of time is approximately correct. 

Criticism. — Baltimore is the only one of the cities considered from 
winch information could be obtained that does not have a definite 
time allotment for the various subjects. It should be stated, how- 
ever, that virtually Baltimore has such an allotment. It is in the 
form, however, of a suggestion rather than an explicit direction. 

The commission gives its unqualified approval to the time allot- 
ment for recitations in the ordinary subjects in each of the several 
grades. 

This schedule is in agreement with the prevailing practice elsewhere, 
and, moreover, it is in accord with the results of investigations of 
child specialists as to the length of time which should be given to 
recitations. 

SUBJECTS IN DETAIL. 

The Language, or English, Group. 

Under this heading, the following closely related subjects are 
included: Reading and literature, spelling, composition, grammar, 
and penmanship. 

The plan of work for English instruction is laid out in a pamphlet of 
nearly 200 pages, entitled "The Course of Study in English." This 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 67 

pamphlet presents tlie ideals and practice of the schools with refer- 
ence to teaching the various branches of English instruction. 

After examining this pamphlet carefully, the conclusion is reached 
that the English course has been worked out with care and intelli- 
gence, and in its content is in general accord with the theory and 
practice of teaching English which prevails in the other large cities. 

An attempt is made in the course to establish a correlation or con- 
nection between the various branches of English instruction and the 
remaining subjects of the curriculum. 

Not only the resources of literature are to be drawn upon for English lessons, all 
other studies of the curriculum furnish stores of material rich in content, and therefore 
of vital interest. (Course of Study, p. 25.) 

There is a good presentation of the importance of oral composition, 
and suggestions are made for the teaching of this important but much- 
neglected branch of English instruction. No better statement of 
aim in the teaching of oral English can perhaps be found than this, 
from the Course of Study : 

But in every grade the teacher should have regular practice for the development 
of ease and fluency in talking, should give to the children an increasing vocabulary, 
should lead them to acquire the habit of using correct forms of speech, should insist 
unceasingly upon a clear and distinct utterance. 

Detailed suggestions are made for teaching the difficult art of 
written composition, which if followed must be productive of good 
results in the schools. It would not be easy to find a more rational 
statement of procedure than the following, taken from the Course of 
Study: 

All lessons in composition should be based upon the principle that thought content 
must precede any expression, and that oral exercises should precede written ones. A 
child's habits of oral expression tend to create habits in written expression; and after 
a time the power to write his thoughts clearly and vigorously will increase his power to 
talk better and more coherently. The art of composition is a difficult art. Facility 
in expressing one's thoughts with precision and grace comes only by practice under 
skilled guidance, and it is therefore recommended that a brief period be given daily 
to written composition. This does not mean that in the upper grades there should not 
be an occasional long composition. 

In treating the language group it seems advisable to give particular 
attention to those parts of the group which have been most freely 
criticised before the commission. It has been repeatedly asserted 
that not enough time has been devoted to grammar. The term 
"grammar" in this case needs careful definition. In Baltimore, as 
in other cities, the course of study calls for the teaching of grammar 
in all grades, but in the lower grades it is to be taught incidentally 
and in connection with other subjects. The course of study provides 



68 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

definitely for systematic language training before the seventh year 
is reached. We quote: 

In addition to this continual incidental training in correct language forms, there 
must be special daily lessons in the use of good English. 

Through the upper grades special directions are given for work toward the improve- 
ment of the pupil's sentences. 

During the first six grades the language lessons and composition exercises, both oral 
and written, will give without formal grammatical study most of the grammatical facts 
of the language. 

In the upper grades, however, the subject is to be taught either by 
the use of texts or otherwise in a definite manner or as the exact sub- 
ject matter of grammar. The following table shows the year in which 
this definite study of grammar begins in the various cities : 

Table 11. — The year of the course in which the study of grammar is begun. 



Year. 

New York 6 

Chicago 7 

Philadelphia 6 

St. Louis 5 

Boston 7 

Cleveland 6 

Baltimore 7 



Year. 

Pittsburg 4 

Detroit 7 

Buffalo 7 

San Francisco 7 

Milwaukee 7 

Cincinnati 6 



The commission believes that there is abundant authority for de- 
ferring the formal study of English grammar until the latter part of 
the grammar-school grades. Those who have investigated the sub- 
ject believe that the formal study of grammar should not be under- 
taken by young children. Grammar is an abstract subject and makes 
severe demands upon the intellectual powers. To force the study of 
the subject upon immature minds is productive of neither intellectual 
training nor of facility in the use of good English. The commission 
believes that there is as much study of formal grammar in the Balti- 
more elemental schools as the pupils maybe expected to " apprehend 
and apply." 

Reading. — The suggestions and directions for teaching reading in 
the course of study are* excellent and the commission feels are in 
accord with the best prevailing practices elsewhere. 

In the course of study the following statement is found : 

The material at first should be only those sentences which the child knows and 
uses in speech. Gradually the teacher will present sentences using such additional 
words as are to be found in the first portion of the primer which the child will use 
later. The sentence is the unit of reading. Later, by the process of analysis, the 
individual words become known as words, and are afterwards analyzed into their 
phonic and alphabetic elements. The process of learning to read should be con- 
ducted in carefully graded steps. For the first 8 or 10 weeks all the reading 
should be from the blackboard. 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 69 

Definite drills in phonics are continued through the first five grades. 
Reading texts are used in the first six grades, but beginning with the 
sixth grade literary wholes are introduced. 

The complaint is made that reading is not thoroughly taught in 
Baltimore in conformity with the established standards of large 
cities. The Milwaukee course of study for 1909 has the following: 

The first steps in teaching little children to read are more easily taken if the children 
are taught to recognize at sight a limited number of words, used from the first in easy 
sentences. This plan is usually spoken of as the "sentence" or "thought method," 
and is a modification and improvement of the "word method" of teaching reading. 

School Document No. 8, 1909, Boston public schools, a preliminary 
course of study (p. 37), gives the following directions for teaching 
reading in the first grade: 

Lessons from the blackboard: (a) Short, simple sentences interesting in content 
and connected in thought, so varied as to prevent monotonous repetition and reciting 
from memory. (6) Study of phonic elements, including phonograms. 

Note. — Children should read easily from the board, using a good vocabulary, 
before attempting the use of books. In all lessons, from the board or book, thought 
getting should be the important feature. 

Careful study of the courses of study of the various cities shows 
that the "sentence" or "thought method" of teaching reading is 
employed in all; that this method is supplemented by definite drill 
in phonics; that the blackboard and chart is used in beginning the 
teaching of reading, and that in the upper grades whole literary 
masterpieces are introduced to take the place of reading books. 
In all these particulars Baltimore's course of study is in full accord 
with the courses for other cities. 

Penmanship. — The vertical system of penmanship was introduced 
in the Baltimore schools in 1898, and its use was continued until 1910. 
Various criticisms have been directed against the character of this 
writing. Recently the system has been changed so that now the 
children begin in the first grade with the large round forms charac- 
teristic of vertical writing; in the second grade the forms are slanted 
slightly; as the child progresses the slant becomes more pronounced 
until the writing becomes what is known as the "medial slant." It 
is probable that the system now in use will correct any deficiencies 
that characterized the old system. 

The commission is of the opinion that the penmanship of the pupils 
in the Baltimore schools is of average quality in comparison with that 
of pupils in other important cities of the country. The commission 
believes that the successful teaching of penmanship is an art which 
requires not only intelligence and teaching skill, but which requires, 
too, the application of certain psychological principles. 

Spelling. — Spelling has been taught in the Baltimore schools by the 
so-called "flash method." One finds upon examination of the course, 



70 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



however, that this is by no means the only method of teaching spell- 
ing that prevails in the Baltimore schools. This method is sug- 
gested, it is true, but no teacher is obliged to follow it to the exclusion 
of other methods which make a larger appeal to her judgment. 

A spelling book is used in three grades — the third, fourth, and fifth. 
In other grades teachers are asked to make use of words commonly 
misspelled by the pupils. 

It is difficult to see how exception can be taken to the following 
statement made in the course of study: 

It is to be emphasized, however, that the words children should learn to spell cor- 
rectly are those words they need to use in their own daily intercourse and writing 
and not artificially constructed lists of words illustrating the anomalies of English 
orthography. 

Because a spelling book is not used in every grade, it is no indica- 
tion that spelling is not taught. There is considerable divergence of 
opinion among educational authorities as to whether the teacher 
should find her material for teaching spelling in a spelling book, or 
in the words which children commonly misspell in their written work. 

The method of teaching spelling has been criticized and the state- 
ment made that it is not in conformity with the established standards 
of large cities. The following table shows the methods employed in 
11 of the large cities: 

Table 12. — The practice in certain cities regarding the use of spelling books and pre- 
scribed lists of words to be learned. 



Cities. 


Methods employed. 


Grade in which 
book is introduced. 










do 




St. Louis 


Book 


Third grade. 


Cleveland 














Book 


Do. 






Fifth grade. 


Bufialo 




Do. 




..do 


Third grade. 






Fourth grade. 




do 


Third grade. 







The above table shows that there is considerable diversity among 
cities regarding the use of a textbook in teaching spelling. Three of 
the cities use the flash methods through the eight grades — at least 
through the first and second — after which some text in spelling is 
employed. From this it appears that a combination of the flash 
method and the use of a textbook is the most common method 
employed by the large cities in teaching spelling. 

The commission could find no evidence that spelling is neglected in 
the Baltimore schools. It is probably true that children do not spell 
as well as their parents, the teachers, the superintendent, or the gen- 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 71 

eral public would like. The golden age when everybody could spell 
correctly is an age which exists purely in the imagination of critics of 
the schools, who do not realize the efforts that teachers are making in 
training children to spell and who do not realize the enormous diffi- 
culties in acquiring spelling on the part of some children. 

Mathematics. 

The course of study in mathematics, like the course in the language 
group, represents the cooperative efforts of the teachers, principals, 
and the board of superintendents. 

Briefly described, the course provides for the introduction of all 
the fundamental processes with integers within the limits of 18, and 
the development of the fractions one-half, two-halves, one-third, 
two-thirds, and three-thirds in the first year. The learning of the 
45 combinations in addition is completed in the second year; the 
multiplication tables are completed and the addition and subtraction 
of fractions introduced in the third year. Long division, multipli- 
cation and division of fractions, and decimals are introduced in the 
fourth year. Percentage is begun in the sixth year. Mensuration 
is taught in each grade. Throughout the course emphasis is placed 
on practical subjects and methods. In the sixth grade and above, 
teachers are encouraged to use the algebraic equation whenever it 
will assist in arithmetic. 

In the opinion of the commission there is not much to criticize in 
the course in mathematics in the Baltimore schools. The methods 
employed are in accord with those used quite generally elsewhere in 
mathematical study. There is some question, however, in the minds 
of the commission as to the amount of work in ratio and propor- 
tion required in the lower grades. Moreover, there are a few topics 
in the course of study which might also be questioned. These are 
the treatment of the fraction two-thirds in the first grade; the 
measurements of wood and lumber in the sixth grade; partnership 
in the seventh; life and accident insurance, the volumes of cylinders, 
and the treatment of drafts in the eighth. But it should be said 
there is a difference of opinion as to these matters on the part of 
those whose opinion is of value. 

The criticism of the "spiral method" has been insistent in 
Baltimore. 

The method employed in teaching arithmetic depends very largely 
upon the character of the textbook used. The new edition of the 
textbooks used in Baltimore is not made on the spiral plan, but the 
old edition was made somewhat on that plan. From the following 
quotations from the prefaces and introductions to various texts that 
are used in the larger cities it will be seen that the textbook writers 



72 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

are not thoroughly agreed as to the best method of procedure in 
introducing topics in arithmetic: 

The amount of work that may be accomplished in a half year has been taken as the 
unit of classification, and within that unit the various subjects have been treated 
topically, though, of course, not exhaustively. With this order of presentation it is 
believed that the most satisfactory results may be obtained. 

1. These lessons have been prepared in the belief that it is a mistake to assume 
that one topic is to be finished before another is begun. The elements of many topics 
are here given in the lower grades in explanations, illustrations, and examples easily 
understood by the younger pupils, and then the work in each topic is made more and 
more difficult through the various grades. until it is finished. These examples have 
stood the test of the schoolroom, and in no case have they been found too difficult. 

2. The arrangement of the topics is such that pupils on passing into a new grade 
find but few new topics, and many pupils are prepared for promotion from grade to 
grade at various times during the year and are not obliged to wait for the annual 
promotions. 

3. Such practical subjects as percentage and interest are introduced in the lower 
grades where many pupils are found who are obliged to leave school before they reach 
the more advanced grades. 

The following ideas have been prominent in the preparation of this book: 

1. In sequence of topics to follow as closely as possible such of the recent courses 
of study as have been most carefully prepared for our public-school systems. How- 
ever an author may feel as to details, he is in the main bound by the consensus of 
oj}inion as thus expressed. The purely "topical" method is scrappy, uninteresting, 
and lacking in the continuity so essential to thoroughness. Between these two comes 
the best type of our modern courses of study, somewhat spiral in arrangement, in that 
most subjects extend over several terms, but admitting of a topical arrangement 
within any one term, thus securing thoroughness and maintaining an interest. * * * 

2. In the matter of method to recognize the valuable features of the best contribu- 
tions, avoiding their extremes. For example, there should always be some attention 
to a spiral arrangement, but its extreme is unscientific and uninteresting. The ratio 
idea in fractions ha3 much to commend it, but its extreme is unnatural and unbusi- 
nesslike. The actual measuring of things is valuable, but that, like paper cutting 
and folding, may be carried be3 f ond reasonable bounds. 

In the distribution of the subject matter care has been taken to combine the best 
features of the spiral and topical arrangement and to adapt the work at every stage to 
the growing powers of the pupil. A large quantity of material for drill is provided 
under each subdivision before a new one is taken up, while carefully graded reviews 
are continued throughout. 

The commission finds its own opinion on the subject of "spiral" 
teaching voiced in the following extract taken from The Teaching of 
Primary Arithmetic, by Dr. Henry Suzzallo, of Columbia University: 

The courses of study, which have been most familiar to its in the past decade, have used the 
"concentric circle" or "spiral" methods of arranging the subtopics of arithmetic. These 
arrangements are "psychological" in type. They are attempts to give a systematic 
r of mastery which shall approximate the child's order of need in knowing. Here 
the first mathematical facts and skills taught are those the child first requires, regard- 
less as to whether they are first integers or fractions, additions or divisions. A little 
later, he deals with the same subjects and the same numbers in more complicated 
manipulation and in more extended application. The field is recovered, as it were, 
by ever widening circles or by an enlarged swing of the "spiral" progression. 



BALTIMOEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICTJLLM. 73 

The older "logical" plans are thorough and definite in their demands; the teacher 
always knows just what he is about. But such a system of procedure is unnatural 
and remote from the child ; it lacks appeal and motive. The child pursues the subject 
as a task laid down for him, not as an answer to his own curiosities or necessities. 
The newer psychological plans meet the 'different levels of child maturity effectively; 
they are nearer the natural order of acquiring knowledge. But it is not easy for the 
teachers to keep account of the work of their own, previous, or subsequent grades. 
Nor does the supervising official find it easy to locate responsibility for definite arith- 
metical subtopics. As an order of teaching it is psychologically natural but admin- 
istratively ineffective. 

The result is that, to-day, the two types of arrangement are modifying each other 
and giving a mixed method, partly "logical" and partly "psychological." That line 
of least resistance in which the children study arithmetical facts and processes with 
greatest success is modified by definite demands that topics, e. g., addition, be mastered 
thoroughly "then and there." The method is partly "topical" and partly "spiral." 
The child in the second grade may have a little of all the fundamental processes, a few 
simple fractions, and United States money; but just there he will he held definitely 
responsible for a very considerable number of the addition combinations. The 
pupil may have had fractions in every grade, but the fifth grade will be responsible 
for a thorough and systematic mastery of the same. Such is the mixed arrangement 
-which is to-day prevalent in American schools. (The italics are our own.) 

This mixed arrangement in the presentation of arithmetical topics 
is the one which may be said to prevail in the Baltimore schools. 
If the children are deficient in arithmetical skill, such deficiencies can 
not be attributed to any particular "method." The cause must in 
the main be sought elsewhere. 

Dr. David Eugene Smith, one of the leading authorities of the 
country in the teaching of mathematics, says, "There is no 'method' 
that will lead to easy victory in the teaching of arithmetic. There 
are a few great principles that may well be taken to heart, but any 
single narrow plan and any single line of material must be looked 
upon with suspicion." 

The course of study contains the following directions to teachers, 
which the commission heartily indorses : 

A large part of the work in each grade should be oral. In the grammar grades at 
least one-half should be oral. In the primary grades even a greater proportion will 
be found needful. 

Give special attention to oral arithmetic — mental arithmetic — to the end that 
facility and accuracy in handling integers and fractions through the fundamental 
operations are attained. 

A large proportion, too, of all review work should be oral. This kind of work should 
be given systematically. Instead of devoting several weeks solely to reviews to the 
exclusion of new work, they should precede, accompany, or follow nearly every writ- 
ten exercise. Reviews should not be confined to the work of a particular grade, but 
should include also all topics previously taught. It should be the aim of each teacher 
by this means to perfect and augment the work of the previous grades, as well as to 
discover weak points and strengthen them. 

Methods are left to the choice of the teacher, who, it is presupposed, is acquainted 
with all the approved ways and means and will use the plan best suited to the case 
in hand. 



74 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SI STEM OF EDUCATION. 



It has been frequently asserted that arithmetic is not thoroughly 
taught in the elementary schools in Baltimore in conformity with 
established standards of larger cities. The following table shows the 
time allotted to arithmetic in ths various grades in certain cities: 



Table 13. 



■The minutes per week devoted to the study of arithmetic and algebra in certain 
cities. 



Cities. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia.. 

St. Louis.. 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 1 

Pittsburgh 

Detroit 

San Francisco. 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 



Year. 



First. 



150 

100 
25 
60 

250 
GO 
75 

150 



Sec- 
ond. 



150 
150 
200 
125 
210 
200 
200 
120 
150 
150 
100 
250 



Third. 



150 
200 
200 
150 
210 
250 
200 
180 
200 
150 
150 
240 



Fourth. 



150 
250 
200 
150 
270 
250 
200 
200 
225 
200 
175 
240 



Fifth. 



150 
150 
225 
150 
270 
250 
250 
200 
250 
250 
175 
240 



Sixth. 



200 
150 
225 
150 
230 
250 
250 
240 
250 
250 
200 
300 



Sev- 
enth. 



200 
150 
225 
150 
210 
300 
275 
300 
275 
250 
200 
300 



Eighth. 



200 
150 
225 
150 
210 
300 
275 
360 
275 
250 
212 
3C0 



Total. 



1,325 
1,200 
1,650 
1,125 
1,635 
1,860 
1,900 
1,660 
1,775 
1,650 
1,287 
2,080 



1 See page 76. 



2 Estimated. 



In the table above it will be noted that Baltimore devotes 250 
minutes every week to the study of arithmetic in the first grade. 
This is 100 minutes more than the corresponding allotment in any 
other -city. Baltimore devotes a total of 1,900 minutes a week 
through the 8 grades. This is the largest total save one. The allot- 
ments are suggestive merely of the relative emphasis that various 
cities place on the different subjects, and inasmuch as the length of 
the school day will influence the amount of time that can be devoted 
to any subject, but does not change the percentage of the school time 
used for the various subjects, percentage is the more reliable guide. 
In all of the cities under consideration the length of the school year 
is practically the same. 

In order to make comparisons the total time devoted to the study 
of arithmetic and algebra in the grades in each of the several cities 
has been changed to percentages and the results shown in the follow- 
ing table: 

Table 14. — The percentage of school time exclusive of recesses and opening exercises 
devoted to the study of arithmetic and algebra in the grades, in 1890 and in 1910-11, in 
certain cities. 



Cities. 


Year. 


Cities. 


Year. 


1890 


1910-11 


1890 


1910-11 


New York 


26.2 
9.3 


13.4 
10.0 
16.1 
15.0 
15.5 
15.5 
18.3 
18.0 


Detroit .' 

Buffalo 


17.2 


16.0 






Philadelphia 




14.0 
15.5 
13.4 


10.6 


St. Louis 


19.3 
16.6 
14.1 
19. 5 




14.7 


Boston 




18.8 










16.5 


15.8 


Pittsburg 













BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 



75 



When the facts for the 10 cities comparable in the above table are 
sented in tabular and graphic form, we have the following : 

Table 15. — Distribution of 10 cities according to the percentage of school time, exclusive of 
recesses and opening exercises, devoted to arithmetic and algebra in the grades in 1890 
and 1910-11. 



a- 



2- 



1- 



Percentages. 


Number of cities. 


1890 


1910-11 


9-11 

12-14 

15-17 

18-20 

21-23 


1 

3 
3 
2 


1 
2 
5 
2 


24-26 


1 







PERCENT 9-11 12-14 15-17 18-20 21-23 24-26 

Fig. 10. Graphic representation of the distribution of the percentages of school time devoted [to arith- 
metic in 1910-11 in 10 cities. 



CO 
UJ 

H 

O 
u. 
O 

cc 
ca 

Z 



5- 
4 — 
3- 
2 — 

1- 



PERCENT 9-11 12-14 15-17 18-20 21-23 24-26 

Fiq. 11. Graphic representation of the distribution of the percentages of school time devoted to arith- 
metic in 1890 in 10 cities. 



76 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



In 1910-11 the average percentage of school time devoted to the 
study of arithmetic and algebra in the grades in 12 cities is 15.8. 
Baltimore devoted 18.3, or 2.5 per cent more time to the study of 
arithmetic and algebra in the grades than the average in the 12 cities. 

In 1890 the average time devoted to the study of arithmetic and 
algebra in the grades in 10 cities was 16.5. At that time Baltimore 
was devoting 19.5 per cent of the school time to these studies. This 
was 3 per cent more than, the average for the cities considered. 
Between 1890 and 1910-11 there has been a decrease of 1.1 per cent 
in the time devoted to the stiubr of arithmetic and algebra in the 10 
cities considered. During the same time there has been a decrease of 
1.2 per cent in the time devoted to the study of arithmetic and 
algebra in the grades in Baltimore. 

The following table shows the grade in which certain topics in 
arithmetic are treated in the various cities: 



Table 16. 



-The year of the course in which specified topics in arithmetic are treated in the 
certain cities. 



45 com- 
binations 
learned. 



Multipli- 
cation 
tables 

learned. 


Long 
division 
taught. 


3 


3 


4 


4 


2 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


3 


4 


3 


4 


3 


4 


3 


4 


3 


4 


4 


4 


3 


3 



Addition 


Multipli- 




and sub- 


cation 




traction 


and divi- 


Decimals 


of frac- 


sion of 


taught. 


tions 


fractions 




taught. 


taught. 




4 


5 


5 


5 


5 


6 


5 


5 


6 


3 


4 


4 


5 


6 


5 


5 


6 


5 


3 


4 


4 


4 


5 


5 


4 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 


4 


5 


4 


5 


5 


6 


4 


5 


4 



Per- 
centage 
taught. 



New York... 

Chicago 

Philadelphia. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 

Pittsburg 

Detroit 

Buffalo 

San Francisco 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 




From the above table it appears that the 45 combinations in 
arithmetic are learned in all but two of the cities in the second grade. 
The most common grade in which the multiplication tables are 
learned is the third. Long division is taught most commonly in the 
fourth grade; addition and subtraction, multiplication and division 
of fractions, and decimals are most commonly taught in the fifth 
grade; and percentage in the sixth. This would indicate that Balti- 
more deals with fractions and decimals earlier than the normal for 
the 13 cities considered. 

More specifically it lias been charged that too much work in frac- 
tions is introduced in the earlier grades. The following table shows 
the time of completion of the 45 combinations in addition and sub- 
traction, the number of multiplication tables, and the fractions having 
for the numerator 1 and denominator 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., learned in the 
first two years: 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 



77 



Table 17. — The grade in which the learning of the 45 combinations in addition and sub- 
traction is completed, the number of multiplication tables learned and the fractions having 
for numerators 1 and denominators 2, S, 4, etc., learned in each city during the first two 
years, and the cities and grades in which algebra is taught. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia.. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 

Pittsburg 

Detroit 

Buffalo 

San Francisco. 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 



Cities. 



Completion of the 45 
combinations. 



Second grade. 

....do 

....do 



Second grade. 

....do 

....do 

do 

....do 

do 

....do 

Fourth grade . 
Second grade. 



Work completed in first 
and second years. 



Multiplica- 
tion tables. 



5x9 

3 x 12 

9 x 10 
5 x 10 
(') 
( 2 ) 
5 x 10 

4 x 10 
None. 

5 x 10 
4x9 
3 x 10 
None. 



Fractions, 

numerator 

1. 



H 

None. 

(') 

None. 

H 

None. 

*-* 

None. 

H 

None. 



When 
algebra 
is first 
taught. 



7 A. 
None. 

8 A. 
None. 
None. 
8 A. 
None. 
7 A. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
8B. 



1 No definite data at hand. 



2 Not formal. 



From the above table it appears that other cities are doing as much 
in arithmetic in the first two years as is outlined for Baltimore. Buf- 
falo, for example, has the same limits as Baltimore. St. Louis does 
not complete the 45 combinations in the second grade, but it has the 
multiplication tables to the fives and develops the fractions from one- 
half to one-eighth. The work outlined in fractions is not more than 
is given in other cities. Many of the teachers, however, have criti- 
cized the work in fractions and have asserted that they were required 
to teach relations with involved mixed numbers, such as 21=1^ x 14. 
The commission has found that in many schools this work is done in 
the second grade; in others it is not done. Such work is not outlined 
in the course of study, but under date of November 13, 1908, the 
board of superintendents furnished answers to questions submitted 
by teachers in the second grade on interpretation of the course of 
study in mathematics. Tins answer contains the following statement : 



B Class— Tone 1. 

(1) For the proper development of each series it is necessary that all the relations 
in the series be taught. 

Example — 

In the series 8, 16, 24, 32 the number 8 should be taught as equal to one-half of 
16, one-third of 24, and one-fourth of 32. 

The number 16 should be taught as equal to two times 8, two-thirds of 24, and 
one-half of 32. 

The number 24 should be taught as equal to three times 8, one and one-half times 
16, and three-fourths of 32. 

The number 32 should be taught as equal to four times 8, two times 16, and one 
and one-third times 24. 



78 KEPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

Besides these fractional relations, the teaching of the combinations and separations 
of the four numbers within each series is also necessary. 
Example — 

Add. Subtract. 

8 8 8 32 24 16 32 32 

8 16 24 8 8 8 24 16 



16 24 32 24 16 8 8 16 

To present these relations properly, it is necessary that concrete material — solids, 

rectangles, lines, etc.— showing these relations be used. 

It is further necessary that an application of these relations to the child's everyday 

experience be made through problems in denominate numbers. 

And, finally, tests are necessary, both at the close of each lesson and of each series 

of lessons, upon these relations without illustrative material. 

A similar interpretation had been sent out by one of the super- 
visors of practice teaching. 

Complaints have been received regarding the omission of algebra 
and geometry from the course of study. Formerly both of these 
subjects had a distinct place in the curriculum; at present the course 
of stud}' provides that algebra may be taught incidentally. 

Such problems in the arithmetic as lend themselves usefully to such treatment 
should be solved by means of algebraic equations. The teaching of the processes 
involved should be done without the use of textbooks, by development exercises, 
when the occasion for their use arises, not by formal instruction given beforehand at 
special periods. Carry on the work in connection with that in arithmetic, so that 
each subject is made to illustrate and supplement the other, and a better under- 
standing of both subjects is secured. In this way pupils will not only acquire an intel- 
ligent understanding of the general method of solving problems, but also the correct 
idea at first hand of equations and their use, clearing them of fractions, transposing a 
term from one member to another, something of the fundamental operations; and of 
"fractions, the greatest common divisor, the least common multiple, factoring, and of 
the meaning and use of algebraic language and processes. 

No special amount of algebra is required. It is left to the teacher to do what she 
finds herself able to do so as to improve the teaching of arithmetic. 

The commission has not found that algebra is taught to any extent 
in the elementary schools. Geometry is not required as a distinct 
subject. In Baltimore, as in all the other cities, the work in mensura- 
tion includes much of the computations formerly required in geom- 
etry. In no one of the 13 cities is geometry now given as a distinct 
subject, and in only 5 of these cities has algebra a distinct place in 
the curriculum. 

Geography. 

The course of study provides for the study of geography from the 
third to the eighth grades, inclusive. "Beginning with the study of 
the home environment, it gradually introduces the study of our own 
country, then of far-away countries and their people, and closes with 
a year's work upon the general principles of physical and commercial 
geography." 



BALTIMOEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 79 

When the Baltimore course of study in geography is compared with 
the courses for other cities, no significant differences appear. The 
general movement in all the courses is from the home and its environ- 
ment to the earth as a whole, and from this to North America and a 
detailed study of the United States. After this, the foreign countries 
are studied and the work ends in the upper grades with a more or 
less definite study of world relations. 

The Baltimore course emphasizes the study of home or local 
geography to a degree found in few courses elsewhere. "Recognition 
is made of the fact that for Baltimore children the most important 
city is Baltimore, the most important State is Maryland, the most 
important country is the United States. This point of view accounts 
for the length of time devoted to these areas.'' 

The following statement from the course of study is not novel to 
those who have observed the trend of late years in geography teach- 
ing. It is quoted to show that the Baltimore course recognizes the 
prevailing tendencies in the teaching of the subject: 

Emphasis is laid upon the use of excursions and pictures, especially through the 
earlier grades, because, through their use, accurate ideas are gained and greater 
interest is aroused. Actual experiences, knowledge of home conditions, and contact 
with things near at hand furnish the only known means of interpreting conditions else- 
where. At the same time the warmth of feeling and stimulus to action aroused in 
one's own locality help to stir the imagination and to develop social sympathy toward 
people whom we can not know personally. 

The treatment throughout the course is largely by topics and the 
facts are organized about important centers of interest. The com- 
mission believes that there is little in the course of study in geography 
which is open to valid criticism. Indeed, it is of the opinion that it is 
one of the most logical courses of study to be found in the subject. 
Teachers are not required to teach all of the topics presented, but 
may choose from the topics. The liberty that is granted the Balti- 
more teachers in this respect is presented elsewhere in the report of 
the commission. As bearing upon "this, however, it is well to quote 
from the course of study: 

Topics are marked short, medium, and long, to indicate the judgment of the com- 
mittee as to the relative amount of time to be spent upon each, but there are no abso- 
lute standards; teachers need to use their own judgment in determining the number 
of lessons to be given to any topic. As indicated in the course of study, a short 
topic may be completed in from one to three lessons, a medium topic in from three to 
seven lessons, a long topic in from seven to ten lessons. 

It is true that the course makes large demands upon the scholar- 
ship and resources of teachers. Indeed the commission has received 
several anonymous criticisms from teachers, concerning the course 
of study in geography. The particular point of these criticisms has 
been the necessity of treating subjects which are not contained in 
the textbook. The statement is made that this method of instruc- 



80 REPORT OX THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

tion imposes a disproportionate amount of labor upon the teachers 
compared with the results to be obtained. 

It should be remembered that efficient teaching of geography in 
Baltimore or elsewhere is by no means the simplest or easiest of the 
teacher's tasks. In a recent report of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education are the following statements: 

It ifl hard to realize the immense distance that separates the scanty sailor geography 
of half a century ago from the complicated network of relations of physical and social 
and political facts, gathered in 50 years of untiring research, which now, under the 
name of geography, form a part of the daily food of all children in the elementary 
schools. 

A qualified teacher of geography in a grammar school must possess intellectual power 
of a high order — a comprehensive grasp of details and ability to master • extended 
trains of inductive reasoning. There is no subject in the high school curriculum 
which makes severer demands on the teacher considered simply as a scholar. 

Bearing upon the question of procedure elsewhere, the following 
quotations from courses of study are made; these are typical of other 
courses throughout the country: 

In the study of geography, it is important to use not only the basal text but also 
supplementary material, such as maps, graphs, pictures, globes, and supplementary 
readers. (Chicago Public Schools, Course of Study, p. 23.) 

Geography, in the grades where the study of history has not been taken up, furnishes 
the best means available for arousing a wide-awake interest, and cultivating the 
child's power of research and his independent judgment. The textbook is useful 
chiefly as a book of reference, and as a source of information which the child is to find 
and arrange for himself. Other geographies, both recent and ancient, encyclopedias, 
books of travel, pamphlets of information issued by railway and steamship companies, 
bird's-eye views, current magazines and periodicals — all may be laid under contribu- 
tion, and are especially valuable in the study of commercial geography. (Milwaukee 
Public Schools, Course of Study, 1909, p. 118.) 

The greater part of the work in geography should be done in the presence of the 
teacher in the classroom. It seems useless to assign daily lessons to be prepared at 
home. * * * The text of any section of the subject to be read aloud — first as a 
reading lesson, that a general idea may be obtained; then a specific study from the 
open textbook — pupils answering exactly and concisely the definite questions of the 
teacher. Selections from a supplementary reader or geography introduced just 
where the specific subject matter is closely related. (Pittsburg Public Schools, 
Syllabus, 1910, p. 119.) 

While the commission indorses the plan of the course of study, yet 
it believes that in working it out in school-room practice so large an 
amoi-nt of oral and blackboard work is required of teachers as 
to make very large demands upon their time and strength. This 
is necessary in order to present the material to pupils. The 
Baltimore course of study in geography should not, in the opinion 
of the commission, be essentially modified, but a larger number 
of books should be supplied for the use of pupils, to the end 
that they may more readily obtain at first hand the informa- 
tion and facts for which the course of study calls. Pupils would 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 



81 



also by this means be somewhat relieved from keeping notebooks, 
which is desirable. In some intermediate grades, children keep 
several notebooks, as many as five in certain schools. The notes 
that are kept in these books consist very generally of rather elaborate 
outlines of subjects. Too often teachers neglect to consistently 
examine these books. 

The suggested allotment of time for the study of geography in 
the Baltimore schools is 11 per cent of the total school time, exclusive 
of opening exercises and recesses. The following table shows the 
suggested time allotment for the study of geography in the various 
cities in 1890 and again in 1910-11 : 

Table 18. — The percentage of the school time, exclusive of opening exercises and recesses, 
devoted to the study of geography in various cities in 1890 and in 1910-11. 



Cities. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia . 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore. . . 
Pittsburg 



1890 



2.7 
4.9 



8.9 
6.8 
6.9 
6.3 



6.2 
4.4 
7.0 
7.3 
6.2 
7.2 
11.0 
9.0 



Cities. 



Detroit 

Buffalo 

San Francisco 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati. . . 

Average 



1890 



0) 



6.0 
6.5 



6.55 



1910-11 



8.2 



7.5 
6.7 
6.1 



7.23 



1 No data at hand. 

When the facts concerning the 10 cities whose time allotments are 
given for both 1890 and 1910-11 are shown in tabular and graphic 
form, we have the following : 

Table 19. — Distribution of percentages of school time, exclusive of opening exercises and 
recesses, devoted to the study of geography in 10 cities in 1890 and the corresponding allot- 
ments in 1910-11. 



Percentages. 


Number of cities. 


1890 


1910-11 


3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 

10 
11 


1 




1 


1 
3 
2 

1 
2 


3 
4 
1 






1 





The above tables show that Baltimore is devoting a larger percent- 
age of the school time to the study of geography than is given by any 
other city. The average for the 12 cities reporting in 1910-11 is 7.23 
per cent. This is 3.77 per cent less than Baltimore's allotment. In 
1890, Baltimore devoted 6.3 per cent of the school time to the study 
of geography. This is 4.7 per cent less than is now devoted to this 

99173— Bull. 4—11 6 



82 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

subject. A comparison shows that the most characteristic percentage 
of time devoted to geography in 1890 was between 6 and 7, while in 
1910-11 it was between 7 and 8. Thus, while the tendency has been 
to increase the amount of time devoted to the study, Baltimore has 
probably erred in giving so large a percentage of the school time to 
this subject. 

Nature study. 

The Baltimore course of study provides for nature study in each of 
the grades. It suggests many more topics than any of the teachers is 
expected to take up. The work is correlated with language, physiol- 
ogy, and geography, and in the upper grades the course takes on much 
of the nature of elementary science. Experiments that are the out- 
growths of work in geography and physiology, as well as nature study, 
are introduced. The course is in line with modern tendencies in the 
teaching of the subject. 

The time allotted to this study varies from 60 minutes to 100 
minutes per week, depending upon the grade. The total time devoted 
to this work throughout the eight grades is 4.5 per cent of the total 
school time, exclusive of opening exercises and recesses. 

The tendency among cities, Baltimore included, to correlate nature 
study with English, geography, and physiology makes it impossible 
to present definite comparisons between the course suggested for 
Baltimore and those suggested by other cities. In each city much 
more work is outlined than any teacher is expected to do, and a 
great deal is trusted to the discretion of the teacher. Each course 
emphasizes the necessity for dealing with objects rather than with 
the literature concerned with the subject. To this end several 
cities make use of the school garden. Each course aims to make 
the work in nature study serve as a basis for oral and even written 
composition. 

The object of introducing this study in all of the cities is to culti- 
vate the habit of observation and to impart a body of useful infor- 
mation. In all of these particulars the course suggested for Balti- 
more is entirely in keeping with the courses suggested by other cities. 
Ihe fact that there is a tendency among the cities to give no sepa- 
rate time allotment to this subject, but rather to include it in the 
time devoted to other subjects, makes it impossible to compare the 
time allotment in Baltimore with that of other cities. A reading of 
the conditions under which the work is given in those cities indicates 
that the time devoted to this subject in Baltimore does not vary 
greatly from the time devoted to it in other cities. 

r i he fact that the Baltimore nature-study outline is mentioned in 
the Cleveland outline for work in nature study indicates the estimate 
that at least one superintendent places upon this course. 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 83 

History. 

The course of study in history provides for the teaching of United 
States history in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. 
This is in general accord with the subject material of history in many 
of the progressive school systems of the country. 

Parallel with the history of the United States, as set forth above, 
are the history stories relating to other countries, taught in the 
fourth and fifth grades. The subject material of these stories has 
been carefully selected and is much the same in its general character 
as that which is found in courses of study elsewhere. 

In the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, a series of exercises, based 
upon important phases of European history, is presented. These 
exercises have in the main been selected with reference to their rela- 
tion to the periods of United States history which the pupils are at 
the time studying. For example: The subject chosen for the periods 
of the Revolutionary War in the United States is the Revolution in 
England and the Revolution in France. There is much to be said 
in favor of presenting to pupils an outline of important phases of 
European history, particularly those parts of it which have a bearing 
upon United States history. There is an increasing conviction 
among historical scholars that the history of the United States should 
not be taught apart from those phases of European history which 
have affected our own history. 

In the Baltimore course of study is an application of this theory, 
and the course is in accord with plans in operation in some other 
cities. 

The commission feels that it is questionable whether, with the 
limited time at the disposal of teachers, with the meager scholarship 
of some teachers, and with the large number of activities which have 
been forced upon the schools by outside public demands, it is advis- 
able to attempt so much in the way of European history as the Balti- 
more course at present provides. It is not wholly a question of the 
value of such instruction, nor is it a question as to whether children 
are interested in it, but it is also a matter of deciding which is the best 
possible use of the children's time. 

The commission is not to be understood, however, as being opposed 
to the correlation of United States history with European history; it 
is only a question of the extent of this correlation which the commis- 
sion raises. 

The members of the commission saw some excellent work in his- 
tory instruction in the Baltimore schools. The commission was par- 
ticularly impressed with the attention which is given to local, or 
Maryland, history. The teaching of this local history was in evidence 
in many schools which the commission visited, and it has only words 



84 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

of commendation for this phase of the instruction. Local history is 
too much neglected in many schools. The commission feels that 
this is not true in Baltimore. 

In a number of schools, the commission was impressed with the 
fact that the schools are deficient in the supply of necessary reference 
books, which the present course of study demands. A good working 
library of historical books should be available in every large building. 

Drawing. 

The Baltimore course of study in drawing shows a definite plan. 
There can be no confusion on the part of teachers regarding the work 
desired by the art department. There seems to be little provision, 
however, for the study of art industries and little thought for inter- 
relation with other subjects of the school curriculum. In these 
respects the course in drawing might be made stronger and more in 
line with the present tendency to relate art to industrial training. 

Physiology and Hygiene. 

The course of study provides that one period a week shall be given 
to the teaching of physiology and hygiene in all grades. An examina- 
tion of the directions to teachers in this subject shows that the 
exercises suggested are in line with the present-day tendencies of 
teaching the subject. There is an increasing feeling that this subject 
should be closely allied to the demands of modern life; particularly 
is this true in courses of study for city children who live in congested 
districts. 

In the following extract is found a statement of the tendencies in 
the treatment of the subject: 

When the pupil is old enough to make a formal study of any branch of hygiene, he 
should be taught with the same direct appeal to sense experience that we insist upon 
in other branches of science, and only those portions of the study should be selected 
which are capable of practical treatment, followed by some immediate personal 
application. 

As an evidence that the Baltimore course is in line with this 
tendency, we quote from the directions in the course of study : 

In connection with physical culture attention is to be called to the value of a good 
erect carriage, well-developed chests and lungs, and an active blood circulation. 
Children's hands and other visible parts of the body are to be daily examined. If 
this is done in the first three grades the habit of cleanliness will generally have been 
effectively established by the time the children enter the grammar grades. 

Whenever an occasion is offered, reasons are to be given for temperance in eating 
and drinking, working and playing, sleeping and waking. 

Care of the eyes, teeth, nasal and vocal organs should be urged as frequently as 
possible, not at stated intervals, but in connection with other subjects. 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 85 

As an example, the entire series of exercises given in the fifth grade 

is as follows: 

Topics for Fifth Grade B. 

1. Review fourth grade A topics. . 

2. The muscles of the body. 

3. Exercise of the muscles. 

4. The skin. 

5. Hygiene of the skin. 

6. The public health. 

7. Hygiene of the home. 

8. Self-government. 

Topics for Fifth Grade A. 

1. The brain. 

2. The brain's messengers. 

3. Care of the eyes. 

4. Care of the voice. 

5. Contagious diseases. 

6. The public health. 

7. The hygiene of the home. 

8. Hints for help in emergencies. 

9. Uses and abuses of household medicines. 

10. Self-government. 

11. Health rules. 

The commission commends the provision that has already been 
made for physical education. This instruction, however, should be 
extended and improved. As a result of their school life, the health of 
children should not only be safeguarded but should be improved. 
This is particularly true when hundreds of children live in congested 
districts, as is the case in Baltimore. 

Positive instruction in physiology and hygiene is not enough. 
Gymnastic exercises are necessary. Teaching young children to 
play is also important. Strange as it may seem, many children do 
not know how to play, such are their home conditions. The schools 
should alleviate, so far as possible, this misfortune. Play is not only 
connected with the health, but with educational progress in other 
directions. One gets the impression that there is not enough of this 
play element in the Baltimore schools. The teacher of 6-year-old 
children who said to a member of the commission, "These children do 
not need games; they need drill," reflects the attitude of too many 
teachers of primary children. To be sure, they need drill; but 
progress in reading, number work, and penmanship is often more 
rapid if a variety of physical exercises are found in the schools. This 
fact, stated here somewhat dogmatically, has been proved over and 
over again in many schools. 

In the opinion of the commission an increased amount of sympa- 
thetic constructive supervision and leadership in the physical-training 
department would remedy whatever defects are found in the depart- 
ment. 



86 EEPOET ON THE BALTIMOEE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

The schoolhouse conditions under which children do their work is 
another important consideration bearing vitally upon their health. 
The ventilation, the lighting, the heating, the seating, the cleanli- 
ness, the toilet arrangements, the playground areas, all these can not 
be ignored hi any discussion of the influences which affect the health 
of school children. As pointed out elsewhere in this report, these 
conditions in many schools in Baltimore are not altogether creditable. 

Handwork and Industrial Subjects. 

(1) The Baltimore course of study provides for manual training 
throughout the grades. In the first five years of the elementary 
school course boys and girls may be instructed together in the regu- 
lar classrooms. This instruction continues through the sixth year 
also, unless the school is located in a building having a manual- 
training center. The materials used in this work consist of card- 
board, raffia, etc., and the tools are scissors, rulers, etc. 

Manual training in the grades above the sixth is carried on in 
manual- training centers in certain schools. In these centers rooms 
are equipped for this work and classes pass here for half of the fore- 
noon or an entire afternoon once a week. In these centers models 
from wood are made and various forms of joints are taught. The 
sixth grade in the buildings in which these centers are located begin 
this work. Work of this same character, though not confined to 
woodwork, is conducted in the various classes for backward children. 

(2) Girls in the third to the sixth grade, inclusive, and also in the 
eighth grade, are taught sewing. In many of the schools a special 
room is set aside for this work, and here the special teacher meets the 
classes. Fifty-five minutes a week are devoted to this work. 

(3) Cooking centers are maintained at various school buildings in 
the same manner in which manual- training centers are maintained. 
Girls from the seventh grade are here taught for a whole afternoon or 
half of a forenoon during one day of the week. Sixth-grade girls in 
the buildings in which the cooking centers are located are also given 
this work. 

(4) In one school for white children and in one for colored children 
special emphasis is being placed upon the industrial work. The 
amount of time devoted to this work is about 8 per cent of the total 
school time. It is the declared purpose of the board to increase the 
number of these schools as rapidly as accommodations can be supplied. 

Approximately one hour a day is devoted to manual training from 
the first to the sixth grade, inclusive. In the seventh and eighth 
grades the suggested time allotment is 110 minutes per week; this is 
therefore 5.3 per cent of the total school time, exclusive of opening 
exercises and recesses. 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 



87 



The following table shows the percentage of time devoted to manual 
training in certain cities in 1910-11: 



City. 


Percentage. 


City. 


Percentage. 




4.7 
9.9 
3.5 
2.4 
6.2 
4.8 
5.3 




5 






1.4 




Buffalo 


0) 




1.8 






6.2 






2.2 













1 No data at hand. 

The commission is of the opinion that the extension of industrial 
training, particularly along vocational lines, is desirable. Baltimore 
is a large manufacturing city. It may be found practicable in the 
near future to relate the work of the schools to the numerous voca- 
tional opportunities the city affords for the employment of young 
people. 

CONDUCT OF INSTRUCTION. 

The commission believes that in many respects the teachers of 
Baltimore are granted unusual freedom in their work. They are 
certainly given more latitude than is found in some other important 
cities. As illustrative of this fact, the following instructions issued 
from the superintendent's office are offered as evidence: 

RELATIVE TO COURSE OF STUDY. 

The course of study is a guide to the selection and sequence of material rather 
than a prescription of the amount of work to be done. Some classes -will do more 
than other classes working with the same course, and some individuals in each class 
will accomplish more than other individuals. When the teacher and principal are 
satisfied that work is too easy for any pupil, that pupil should be advanced by special 
promotion. The fitness of pupils for promotion should not be measured entirely 
by what they know, but largely by what they can do with new lessons. 

From now to the end of the year teachers who find their classes weak in a particular 
subject should give more periods to such subjects than to those in which the pupils 
are strong — not longer periods, but more periods. In fact, this may be done at any 
time of year, always, of course, with your approval in each individual case. The 
arrangement of time and subjects on schedules sent out from this office is, as you 
know, suggestive only. 

RELATIVE TO DAILY SCHEDULES AND LESSON PLANS. 

The teachers into whose hands this pamphlet goes are to understand distinctly that 
with the exception of the section headed "General directions," it offers merely sug- 
gestions for making daily schedules and lesson plans. With regard to such plans it 
would be most undesirable for teachers to feel that they are receiving instructions 
which must be followed absolutely. The plans here given may be found serviceable 
as models upon which varying schedules and plans may be patterned. 

It would be an exceedingly unfortunate thing if every teacher in the public schools 
felt obliged to use the schedule for his grade or the plan for hi? work to be found in 



88 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

this book, excluding any of his own making. He should study his particular conditions, 
and if convinced that the suggestions here offered are the best for his class he should 
use them; otherwise these outlines should be freely modified. 

RELATIVE TO SECTIONAL TEACHING. 

Teachers not accustomed to divided-class management will, if they so request, 
be permitted at first to limit sectioning to two subjects. Later, however, they will 
be expected to extend the plan to other subjects. Any help needed, either in in- 
augurating or carrying out the section plan of teaching, is to be obtained from the 
group principal. 

RELATIVE TO TIME ALLOTMENT OF RECITATIONS. 

Except in the few instances noted in succeeding pages, or for extraordinary reasons, 
the following time limits are not to be exceeded: Grade one, 15 minutes; grades two> 
three, and four, 20 minutes; grades five and six, 25 minutes; and grades seven and 
eight, 30 minutes. Painting, drawing, or construction may require 30 minutes in 
grades one to six. In order to give the teacher needed help, the supervisor may at 
times have to prolong an illustrative exercise somewhat beyond the time limits. 

TEACHING METHOD. 

The children feel too little responsibility; the teacher and the text- 
book are too much in evidence, and the progressive activities of the 
children too little in evidence. In some primary schools there is not 
enough recognition of child life, either in methods of teaching or in 
variety of exercises. The teaching is not adapted to children, for 
the point of view is too often that of the teacher rather than that of 
the child. The children take little part in recitations other than 
answering formal questions. The initiative is that of the teacher 
rather than that of the pupil. For example, in some schools, pupils 
are required in their exercises in oral English to reproduce stories 
that have been told them in exactly the way that they were told, 
and therefore no chance given a variation in the telling. The judg- 
ment is* too rarely exercised, because the ideal is to memorize the 
facts rather than to draw inferences from the facts. 

Not enough use is made of the principle of apperception. Lessons 
are begun with very little attention at bringing up the lessons that 
have gone before, and are ended without leaving any very definite 
impression on the child's mind as to just the purpose the lesson was 
to serve. The impression is that of a disjointed type of work. 

SECTIONAL TEACHING. 

The commission has received many criticisms of sectional teaching. 
The following quotation from the Twelfth Annual Report of the 
City Superintendent of Schools to the Board of Education of the 
city of New York (pp. 260-262) states the arguments presented 
both for and against sectional teaching. 



BALTIMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 89 

INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION AND GROUP TEACHING. 

One of the most serious criticisms that is made of modern education, especially in 
cities where the attendance is large and the classes are closely graded, is the tendency 
to recognize large groups of pupils rather than individuals. Mass teaching is in the 
line of least resistance; and as a consequence many a teacher centers her attention 
but little on individuals; she measures her success by the progress of the class rather 
than of individual members. 

The object of school classification is to place pupils in right relation to work and to 
each other, and to facilitate progress through the grades. Differences are sure to 
exist in any class, in the ages and maturity of pupils, in their ability and progress, 
in their regularity of attendance and power of application, and in the assistance ren- 
dered at home; and these differences should be recognized. Any plan of grading 
pupils has a tendency to hold in check the bright pupils and thus to deaden rather 
than to quicken mental activity; and on the other hand, ordinary school classifica- 
tion may discourage the slow and backward pupils who fail to grasp clearly much of 
what is presented. 

SINGLE DIVISION. 

The main arguments advanced in favor of a single division in class work are: Fewer 
classes, and, therefore, more time for each exercise, and presumably more thorough 
work; accelerating effect of mass movement upon certain pupils; difficulty in keep- 
ing the division not reciting profitably employed; and less work for the teacher. 
These arguments, however, have small weight in the mind of a genuine teacher 
thoroughly interested in the progress and best work of her pupils. 

TWO DIVISIONS. 

The main arguments in favor of at least two divisions in the main subjects in a 
class are: 

1. A small group of pupils can be kept interested, attentive, and mentally alert 
better than can a class of forty or fifty pupils. In other words, any teacher will hold 
the interest and enthusiastic attention of one-half or one-third of a large class better 
than she can of the entire class, and she can do more and better work in fifteen or 
twenty minutes with the individuals in a small group than she can in twice the time 
with the individuals in a large class. 

2. A definite time for study and self-directed effort is afforded. In mass teaching 
there is a tendency to make the recitation too prominent, and to undervalue the worth 
of study. This fact is clearly apparent when pupils leave the elementary grades and 
are obliged to prepare their lessons without a teacher's assistance. Those pupils who 
were taught the art of individual and persistent application to study in the elementary 
grades have a great advantage in the secondary schools over those less favored. 

3. The power of concentration and inhibition is strengthened by group teaching. 
Pupils who are in a recitation the greater part of the day are apt to grow intellectually 
weak; they absorb without effort whatever is given them; they find it difficult, if 
not impossible, to apply themselves with vigor to the preparation of their lessons 
without the constant oversight and assistance of teachers. The reason for their 
helplessness in the higher grades is due largely to the fact that pupils have not been 
taught in the elementary grades to apply themselves to the mastery of books, to work 
independently and energetically even while other exercises are being earned on in 
the room. 

4. There is less opportunity for the teacher to talk and to explain in short periods 
when the class is in two divisions than in long periods with a single division. And 
a point well worth consideration in connection with group teaching is the fact that 



90 REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

the teacher's questions and explanations must be given in a quiet voice, lest she 
disturb the division which is preparing a lesson. This one point alone is ground 
enough for requiring group teaching in every elementary school. 

5. There will be more attention to the individual child and more opportunity for 
wise assistance and for the promotion of deserving pupils in a small group than in a 
large one. Small groups encourage personal attention; large groups discourage it. 
The plea, therefore, for two divisions in the main subjects in any elementary class 
resolves itself into a plea for greater care and oversight of the individual pupil. The 
special plans for classifying and promoting pupils that have been exploited by super- 
intendents in various cities during the past few years have as their basis the special 
needs of the individual child. 

The statements made in the quotation above will, in the judgment 
of the commission, apply with equal force to the conditions in Balti- 
more. The commission approves the plan of sectional teaching set 
forth in the following quotation from "General directions" in the 
supplement to the outline of studies for the elementary schools of 
Baltimore (p. 5) : 

Arrange the program in every grade so that the children shall be engaged in inde- 
pendent work (such as study or constructive exercises) for one-fourth to one-half of 
each day. Since opportunity for self-direction is an essential toward cultivating self- 
reliance and resourcefulness, these exercises should not be under the immediate guid- 
ance of the teacher. 

To provide for this highly important part of school education, divide the class accord- 
ing to working ability into two or more sections and teach them separately in a manne r 
similar to that indicated in the accompanying schedules. Music, penmanship, written 
spelling, drawing, and physical culture are appropriate subjects for undivided-class 
exercises. 

The ideal arrangement for divided-class teaching applicable especially to grammar 
grades would provide for new sections according to the daily or weekly progress of 
individual pupils in separate studies, and would involve no change of schedule. 
Before one can arrange a plan so flexible as this, the two or three section schedule 
must first become familiar. 

(For further explanation of flexible sectional management, see Baltimore School 
Report for 1902, pp. 23-25, and Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1898-99, 
Vol. I, pp. 341-344.) 

COEDUCATION OF THE SEXES. 

The subject of coeducation of boys and girls has not, so far as we 
can learn, aroused such serious question in other cities as has recently 
been raised in Baltimore. The preponderance of American opinion 
seems to be very markedly on the side of coeducation in both primary 
and grammar schools. In the absence of any well-ascertained infor- 
mation which would show plainly that coeducation in these grades 
presents fewer advantages and greater evils than separate education, 
we can not advise the transformation of the mixed schools into schools 
in which the sexes are separated. Public schools of both types exist 
in Baltimore to-day. Considerable expense would undoubtedly be 
involved in the attempt to reduce all of these to the one type of the 
school in winch boys and girls are separated, and such expenditure 



BALTIMOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 



91 



must inevitably delay improvement in other directions where the need 
of change is more manifest. 

The following table shows the practice in regard to coeducation of 
the sexes in 15 of the larger cities: 

Coeducation in 15 cities of 300,000 population and over. 
[Based on information received from superintendents of schools.] 



Cities. 


Percentage of elementary classes 
containing both boys and girls. 


Extent of opposition by public. 




Both attend grades below the 
fifth in most schools. In many 
buildings boys and girls are 
separated at the beginning of 
the fifth year. 


Opinions vary with different sections 




of the city. 
No noticeable objection. 




All 


No opposition as far as known. 




80 or 90 per cent 


No serious objection. 




All 


No opposition. 


Pittsburg, Pa 


do 






...do 


No general opposition. 






No opposition. 


Buffalo, N. Y 




Do. 




All 


Practically no opposition. 






No opposition. 




All 


Do. 






Little opposition for primary grades. 




All 


No objection. 






Do. 









HOME STUDY. 

The commission has heard complaints about the amount of home 
study required. The directions concerning home study are as follows : 

To aid in establishing habits of industry and self-reliance, home work, involving 
activities of construction, may be assigned to third and fourth grades (something to do 
with the hands rather than something to study). Home assignments in the fifth and 
sixth grades should be partly of this character. (School Hygiene, Shaw. ) In general, 
home study should be supplementary to classroom work, and should deal with 
matters treated in a previous lesson. 

These directions, which limit the home work in the third and fourth 
grades to hand work, are excellent. As to the higher grades, more 
definite directions might well be given. In the lower grades, the 
Umitations of home study, as stated, should be enforced. 



CHAPTER IV. 
SUBSIDIARY TOPICS. 
THE SCHOOL PLANT. ' 

The commission deems it its duty to call attention to the condition 
of many of the schoolhouses. 

While the commission was gratified to observe that new school- 
houses had recently been erected in Baltimore which are a credit to 
the city, yet it must record the fact that a large number of the present 
school buildings are not suitable for school purposes. In many of 
the older buildings the rooms are without any ventilation other than 
that which comes from windows, and the lighting is very poor. 
We believe the eyesight of children must be impaired by the inade- 
quate lighting of many school buildings. W T e understand that upward 
of 200 rooms are still heated with stoves. The commission observed 
some rooms which are only 20 by 21 feet in size. In many schools 
there is no adequate provision for the outside wraps of the school 
children. Moreover, many of the schoolhouses are untidy and the 
janitor service inefficient. These are not pleasant facts to state, but 
the commission would be derelict in its duty if it failed to record its 
views on this subject. 

The commission believes, too, that in some buildings of three stories 
in height, which have been erected in comparatively recent years 
and are not of fireproof construction, there^is a danger, more real 
than imaginary, of fire and the possible sacrifice of the lives of children. 

The commission is aware of the fact that the school board has called 
the attention of the municipal authorities to the condition of the 
school buildings and that it has asked for a large bond issue for new 
schoolhousas. The commission does not see how the municipal 
authorities can fail to take prompt action for the correction of these 
evils. 

THE ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS. 

The table on the following page shows for the years 1870, 1880, 
1890, 1900, and for each year thereafter the principal items of attend- 
ance statistics. The figures are based on the reports of the board 
of school commissioners. 

These figures indicate a normal increase in the enrollment from 
1870 to 1900, unusual fluctuations in the two following years, and a 
gradual diminution from 1903 to the present. It is difficult to treat 
satisfactorily statistics relating to enrollment over a period of years 
because of the general lack in most cities of the observance of the 
rule requiring that no duplication be allowed. It seems that this 
rule was not put into effectual practice in Baltimore until 1905. It 
92 



THE ATTENDANCE OP PUPILS. 



93 



is likely, therefore, that the exceptional figures for 1901 and 1902 
can be accounted for on this basis. 



Years. 


Enrollment, 
all schools. 


Average 
daily at- 
tendance, all 
schools. 


Number of 
pupils be- 
longing, all 
schools, 
Dec. 31. 


Enrollment, 
elementary- 
schools. 


1870 


34, 769 
51,117 
65, 758 
79,659 
i 83, 415 
188,523 
82,297 
81, 582 
81, 205 
81, 964 
81, 402 
80, 235 
80,363 
79, 838 


19, 277 
29,417 
41,603 
54, 403 
52,640 
51, 776 
55,353 
55, 156 
55, 067 
55, 079 
54, 572 
55, 501 
55,011 
55, 103 


23,898 
35, 297 
50, 899 
64, 720 
64,918 
66,399 
67,368 
68, 093 
67,964 
69, 446 
68, 723 
68, 924 
68, 120 
67, 508 




1880 

1890 

1900 

1901 


49,071 
63, 499 
77, 198 
80,376 
85, 157 
78, 465 
77, 143 


1902 


1903 


1904 


1905 


1906 


78, 477 
77, 816 
76,446 
76,045 
75,366 


1907 

1908 


1909 

1910 





i The report for 1901 "after deductions for transfers have been made.' 
contains duplications on account of transfers. 



The enrollment for 1902 probably 



While an increased rigidity in the enforcement of the rule may have 
had some effect in causing a continued slight decrease in the enroll- 
ment after 1905, it seems more probable that there has been a slight 
falling off in the actual enrollment during the past five years. The 
average daily attendance statistics for the past six years shows 
very little variation from year to year, notwithstanding the probable 
decrease in enrollment. It is difficult for the same reason to speak 
satisfactorily concerning the enrollment in proportion to population 
from decade to decade. The following table, taken from the reports 
of the Commissioner of Education, shows the proportions : 



Years. 


Enrollment, 
all schools. 


Population. 


Ratio. 


1880 


48,066 
63,545 
79,684 
79,838 


332, 190 
434,439 

508,957 
558,485 


14.5 


1890 


14.6 


1900 


15.6 


1910 


14.3 







The following table, showing the ratio of enrollment to population 
in 1910 of all cities above 350,000, speaks very favorably for the total 
enrollment in Baltimore. Only Buffalo, New York, and Boston show 
a higher proportion of their population in the public schools. 



Cities. 


Population. 


Enrollment. 


Per cent. 




4,766,883 
2,185,283 
1,549,008 
687,029 
670,585 
560,663 
558,485 
533,905 
465, 766 
423, 715 
416,912 
373,857 
364,463 


744, 148 
301, 172 
174,441 
87,931 
111,632 
74,438 
79,838 
57,215 
57,996 
62,695 
43, 155 
42,372 
47,454 


15.6 


Chicago 


13.8 




11.3 




12.8 




16.6 




13.3 


Baltimore 


14.3 




10.7 




12.5 


Buffalo 


14.8 


San Francisco 


10.4 




11.4 




13.1 







94 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



Baltimore ranks lowest as regards the average number of days 
attended by each child enrolled, its average being 10 days lower 
than that of the next city and 42 days lower than that of Milwaukee. 

Table 20. — Average number of days attended by each child enrolled, 1910. 



Cities. 



Aggregate 

attendance, 

in days. 



Total enroll- 
ment. 



Average num- 
ber of days 

attended by 
each pupil 
enrolled. 



New York 

Chicago 

Philadelphia.. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore 

Pittsburg 

Detroit 

Buffalo 

San Francisco 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 



113,011,301 

46,746,372 

28,079,683 

13,581,600 

16, 996, 617 

10,871,764 

10,607,101 

8,930,000 

8,265,984 

9,072,000 

6,790,632 

7,401,641 

7,127,800 



744, 148 

301,172 

174,441 

S7,931 

111,632 

74,438 

79,838 

57,215 

57,996 

62,695 

43,155 

42,372 

47,454 



152 
155 
162 
155 
152 
146 
133 
156 
143 
145 
157 
175 
150 



Baltimore has the least satisfactory distribution of pupils among 
the various grades, of all the 13 cities above 350,000 population. 
It is desirable that a city hold its pupils in school as long as possi- 
ble, at least up to the end of the eight-year elementary course. 
The city, therefore, having the largest percentage of pupils in the 
upper grades and the smallest percentage in the lower grades stands 
highest in this respect, while the city in which the reverse condition 
is true stands lowest. In Baltimore the percentages of enrollment 
in each of the first four grades are the highest of all cities but one 
(a different city in each grade), while in the fifth grade Baltimore 
has the lowest but four, and in the sixth, seventh, and eighth the 
lowest of all. In the high schools the percentage of enrollment for 
the first and fourth years is the lowest but three, for the second the 
lowest but one, for the third the lowest but two, and for the entire 
high-school enrollment the lowest but three. 

The following tables and accompanying diagram show by absolute 
figures and percentages the distribution of the enrollment in the 
various grades in 1910 for each of 17 cities: 1 

1 These statistics were gathered by the United States Bureau of Education for 1910. In some cases the 
school census for some day during the school year 1909-10 is given; in others, the number belonging upon 
a certain day; in others, the total enrollment for the year. These figures are comparable, for the reason 
that practically the same distributions of enrollment would be shown for any city under all three items. 
The Baltimore statistics are the "number belonging, including temporary withdrawals," Dec. 31, 1909. 



THE ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS. 



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REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



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THE ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS. 



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98 



BEPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



Notwithstanding these facts, conditions have improved in Balti- 
more since 1899. Table 23, furnished by the superintendent of pub- 
He instruction, Baltimore, shows absolute decreases in the enrollment 
in the two lower grades, small increases in the third and fourth, and 
larger increases in the fifth and higher grades. Table 24 shows the 
percentages of the total enrollment in each grade each year and the 
change in those percentages from the percentages of 1899. Fig. 13 
illustrates the changes. 



DECREASES 



INCREASES 



5.0 



1.0 



FIRST GRADE 
SECOND GRADE 
g THIRD GRADE 

R FOURTH GRADE 

„,,„ FIFTH GRADE 

n SIXTH GRADE 

B« SEVENTH GRADE 

maa EIGHTH GRADE 

^^^ m NINTH GRADE 

bb TENTH GRADE 

■ ELEVENTH GRADE 

■ TWELFTH GRADE 

Fig. 13.— Changes in distribution of enrollments in Baltimore between 1899 and 1909, based on Table 24. 

Statistics prepared by the principals of two groups for the past 10 
years show a large decrease in the length of time required for pupils 
to complete a grade. This means that there is less retardation in 
these groups than formerly. What is true of these groups is probably 
true to a lesser extent in all the other groups. 

It appears, then, that as regards the attendance of pupils there are 
some favorable indications and others that are unfavorable. The 
slight decrease in the enrollment during the past few years is of minor 
importance, in view of the fact that the proportion of enrollment to 
population in Baltimore is high as compared with other cities of the 
same group. The increase in the average daily attendance, despite 
the decrease in the enrollment, is encouraging. While the consider- 
able increase in the enrollment in^the upper grades during the past 



THE ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS. 



99 



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100 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



10 years is likewise encouraging, the unusually large proportion of 
the enrollment still found in the lower grades, the large percentage of 
retardation, and the low average number of days attended by each 
child, are facts to be deplored. 

THE HEALTH OF PUPILS. 

Responsibility for the health of pupils rests primarily with the 
health department of Baltimore. As early as possible in the school 
year, the schools are visited by a medical inspector accompanied 
by a school nurse. Each child is examined and results of the 
examination are noted on a convenient form, which is retained by 
the school nurse. In case it is found necessary to advise medical 
treatment the parents are notified and wherever possible the nurse 
visits the homes and learns how the instructions are being obeyed. 
Later in the year the children are reinspected, and the results of the 
examination are indicated on the form used for the first examination. 

So much of the medical examination as has come under the per- 
sonal observation of the commission has made a decidedly favorable 
impression. 

The condition of medical inspection in the 13 largest city public- 
school systems is given in the following table, which is derived from 
a report covering conditions in 1,038 cities, entitled "What American 
cities are doing for the health of school children," recently published 
by the department of child hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation. 

Table 25. — Medical inspection in certain city public-school systems, 1911. 



Cities. 


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1897 
1907 
1904 
1909 
1894 
1910 
1905 
1910 
1902 
1907 
1907 
1909 
1905 


X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 


X 
X 


X 
X 
X 
X 


X 
X 
X 
X 


H. 
H. 
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E. 
H. 
E. 
H. 
H. 
H. 
H. 
H. 
E. 
H. 


142 

100 

30 

6 

80 

15 

5 

30 

27 

1 
10 
25 


142 
40 
9 
5 
34 
15 
5 










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X 


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X 
X 
X 
X 


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X 
X 


6 
3 
4 
4 
3 




Buffalo 


X 












X 







THE CONTROL AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 101 

THE CONTROL AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 

The commission found little to criticize in the behavior or conduct 
of pupils as they were observed in the schools. In the main they 
were seen to be industrious, studious, attentive, orderly, punctual, 
obedient, and polite. It feels, therefore, that the children are, as a 
result of their school life, acquiring habits of behavior which will be 
of inestimable value to those children all their lives and to the com- 
munity in which they will live. The schools in Baltimore or else- 
where are worth all they cost in giving multitudes of children these 
habits of self-control. 

In a few schools, however, the children are not in good order, as 
stated elsewhere in this report, and the general relationship existing 
between teachers and pupils in those schools is unsympathetic; but 
the exception only proves the rule. 

The commission is not in accord with the agitation for the restora- 
tion of corporal punishment in elementary schools. $ Such restora- 
tion would be a step backward. Under proper restrictions, however, 
the use of corporal punishment might be allowed in the special schools 
for boys. 

Various agencies may be used, and in fact are in use in Baltimore, 
which afford effective means of control of troublesome pupils. 
Special schools, already established, of various sorts, afford one 
means of control, and the extension of industrial training, particu- 
larly for boys, is another means. Many boys 12 to 14 years 
of age in Baltimore and elsewhere, are in a state of unconscious 
protest against the traditional, bookish, or conventional course of 
study. They are in the minority, it is true; they are not bad boys. 
They need a different kind of school from the one afforded by a mere 
academic course of study. They may in most cases be saved to 
themselves and to the State if their peculiarities are recognized. 
Whipping them into submission is not the best way to reform them. 
Industrial training is the way advocated by those who have had 
first-hand and prolonged experience with such boys. The experi- 
ence, too, of many cities amply demonstrates the truth of this. 



CHAPTER V. 
ADDITIONAL VIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

More and more society is coming to lean hard upon public educa- 
tion. Every new public interest, whatever it may be, becomes 
another argument in favor of good schools. A city board of educa- 
tion is charged with providing, for the community as a whole, the 
best educational opportunity that can be made generally available. 
We regard the schools as a main reliance of modern society for the 
promotion of both private righteousness and devotion to the public 
good, as well as for the diffusion of that intelligence and discipline 
which will make these high aims and sentiments effective. 

To accomplish these results, in the largest progressive communities 
whose public institutions are generously maintained, already calls for 
from 25 to 35 per cent of all revenues for municipal purposes, and 
will in all probability, within the near future, absorb normally from 
one-third to two-fifths of those revenues. 

It is accordingly a matter of the utmost consequence in all of our 
cities that the public schools be conducted in ways that will bear the 
closest scrutiny as regards economy of expenditure and efficiency in 
all of their operations; as regards the municipal pride and self-respect 
which they exemplify and foster; and as regards their democratic 
fairness in providing equal opportunity for all and in discountenanc- 
ing faction and favoritism. A general inquiry into the condition of 
the schools, at stated intervals of not more than 10 or 12 years, would 
serve a useful purpose. 

Attention is invited to the following general considerations regard- 
ing ways in which these high ends may be attained: 

THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

City school boards should not be too large; they should be repre- 
sentative of the city as a whole, and not of districts or wards ; they 
should be composed of citizens who are deeply interested in the 
public welfare; their members should not represent political parties 
or factions within the city, should go out of office a few at a time, 
and should not be paid for their services. 

A board of education should be primarily a legislative body. Its 
chief functions should be to decide questions of policy, both imme- 
diate and future; to arbitrate disputed questions, of large impor- 

102 



VIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS. 103 

tance; to oversee the expenditures of the school funds; to decide 
what enlargements and additions shall be made, and to secure funds 
to carry out such objects; to adopt rules and regulations for the 
management of the school system; and to appoint all necessary 
executive officers, clothe them with proper authority, and uphold 
them in the discharge of their duties. 

Such a board should represent the whole people in their desire to 
provide good schools for their children. They should be made suf- 
ficiently free from other branches or departments of the city govern- 
ment to enable them to make all necessary arrangements, appoint- 
ments, and expenditures for public education apart from any per- 
sonal or political considerations which may affect other branches or 
departments. Their functions fall into the two divisions of educa- 
tional and business management. The first is highly professional 
work, the object of which is to get as large educational results out 
of the money available as is possible. The second partakes of the 
character of all sound business. 

(a) Educational management. — The head of this department is the 
superintendent of schools, together with his corps of assistants. He 
should be selected with great care, and from the Nation as a whole 
rather than from a single city, or State. Once selected, he should 
be clothed with authority commensurate with his responsibility, and 
then expected to get the desired results. 

The independence of the superintendent as the chief executive 
officer in educational affairs should be recognized by the members of 
the legislative branch, and no member of a school board should seek 
to interfere with him in any way in the exercise of his duties as de- 
fined by law and regulation. The rule of mutual respect and help- 
fulness should prevail between the two branches of the school de- 
partment. A superintendent should not attempt to carry out any 
policy that has not been previously approved by the board, nor to 
dictate policies, for his function in the framing of new policies ends 
with recommendation. Board members, on the other hand, should 
not have any direct participation in affairs which are within the field 
of executive action and discretion. The superintendent and his 
assistants, after being given a fair opportunity to discharge their 
proper functions, stand or fall according to the value of the results 
which they obtain. 

(&) Business management. — To a limited extent, the same principles 
apply as well to the control of the business side. After hearing the 
reports and recommendations of the business manager, superintend- 
ent of buildings, and other business officers, the board should decide 
what is advisable and financially possible, but the execution of the 
details should be left to these executive officers. If they are not 
competent to attend to such details, they should be replaced by 
those who are competent. 



104 BEPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

QUESTIONS OF FINANCE. 

Nowhere does a board of school commissioners better represent the 
interests of the people than in the matter of school expenditures. 
The broad principles set forth above apply here also. It is not the 
interests of individuals that are to be chiefly considered, but the 
interests of the city as a whole. The board, in a way, must represent 
and be the spokesmen for the future citizens of the city as well as for 
the present citizens. A board which properly fulfills its function and 
justifies its existence must consciously work in the light of an educa- 
tional policy that looks a generation ahead. 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOLS. 

As regards the organization of the schools, the board must be guided 
largely by the advice of its educational officers, but should plan an 
educational system which will meet the needs of a growing city and 
of all of the people of the city. Our schools to-day render but a por- 
tion of their possible service, but in the more progressive communities 
their scope is rapidly expanding. A great extension of our public 
school systems, to meet the many educational needs of many different 
classes of our population, is to be expected and is indeed already 
under way. 

THE SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION. 

The central figure in a system of city school administration is the 
superintendent. The problems he is required to study are so many 
and so large as to render it impossible for him to spend much time 
in actual school visitation or in woxking out the finer details of school 
instruction. His chief reliance for such work must be placed in 
assistant superintendents and supervisors. Unless these are efficient, 
adequate in number, and thoroughly trustworthy, he can do little to 
advance the efficiency of the schools. 

Next to the superintendent and his immediate assistants are the 
school principals. Upon their efficient and hearty cooperation in 
all efforts deemed to be for the good of the school system, the success 
of the efforts of the superintendent must depend, and no board 
should attempt to hold a superintendent accountable for educational 
results unless, at the same time, it holds every principal accountable 
in turn to the superintendent. Differences should be frankly threshed 
out in conferences; for the relation of a superintendent to his subor- 
dinates is partly that of a leader in a democracy as well as partly 
that of a manager in an industrial enterprise. But when a policy 
has once been decided upon, it should be loyally carried out by the 
principals. Principals who can not or will not render effective coop- 
eration in the carrying out of such a policy should be relieved from 
their positions, in the interests of the schools. Other things being 



VIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS. 105 

equal, those persons will make the best principals and supervisor 
who have known some other school system in addition to the one 
they are to supervise. 

THE TEACHERS. 

The same principles apply, though with somewhat less force, to 
the teaching corps of a city. What is wanted is the best company 
of teachers obtainable for the money which can be provided; and 
the interests of the children for whom the schools exist, and not the 
interests of individuals, should be the ruling principle. 

Tbe best results within a school system may be expected under 
some form of indefinite tenure of position for all teachers, principals, 
and supervisors. By this is meant neither life tenure nor unstable 
tenure, but rather some form of appointment under which a teacher 
may be dismissed for serious offenses at any time and for general 
inefficiency at the end of any year. This is nominally the case where 
teachers may legally be dismissed for cause shown in a formal hear- 
ing or trial; in practice, however, such a system guards the teacher's 
tenure of office more perfectly than it guards the educational rights 
of the children. It is the middle ground of fairness to both pupils 
and teachers which is here advocated. 

The training provided for prospective teachers should be as good 
as money can secure. The training-school teachers should be drawn 
freely from those cities and professional schools which are well 
known for their efficiency, and at liberal salaries. The training 
schools should be made a social center for the girls while in training, 
and a professional center for the teachers of the whole city as well. 

It is always wisdom on the part of a city to pay its teachers ade- 
quate salaries. There is no reason that will justify paying a teacher 
less than a fireman, a policeman, or an employee at the city hall, 
and many reasons for paying them more. Teachers should be able 
to earn interest on the investment made in years of study and special 
training, and have money for travel and study besides. 

Our city school systems are moving forward at a reasonably rapid 
rate toward a condition in which their teaching force will be made up 
of teachers having a good general education, together with an adequate 
course of special training for the vocation of teaching. When they 
are fairly placed on this professional basis, it is desirable that a large 
measure of responsibility for the general interests of the schools shall 
be laid directly on tins professional body. 

At the present time the professionalizing of teaching is accom- 
plished only in part. We are at an intermediate stage of our scholastic 
development. Such a stage requires readjustments, which must 
extend over some years and will accordingly call for much patience 
on the part of all concerned. There should, however, be a steady 



106 BEPOET ON THE BALTIMOKE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 

advance toward the end in view, which is that of a thoroughly trained 
teaching body permeated with the highest professional spirit. Such 
a teaching force will manifest their professional spirit in making it 
their first concern to promote the good and the general usefulness of 
the schools with a fair understanding of what is best for the schools. 
As their ability to interpret the needs of the community on the 
side of public education develops, and their power to formulate 
plans for meeting these needs increases, in just such proportion should 
their views be increasingly recognized in the shaping of educational 
policies and practices that affect directly their professional status and 
professional activities. 

THE INTEREST OF THE COMMUNITY. 

It is desirable that there should be channels through which the opinion 
of the public, and particularly of that public which is most directly 
interested in the schools, may regularly reach the superintendent of 
schools and the board of education. Associations of the parents of 
school children and other nonprofessional education societies may be 
made of the greatest usefulness, if they shall keep alive the discussion 
of educational questions and act as unofficial advisers of the board of 
education. Such free and sustained discussion is better than spas- 
modic discussion in time of controversy followed by inattention to 
educational questions till another controversy shall arise. The rapid 
enlargement of school activities at this time renders it doubly desirable 
that every effort shall be made to cultivate a general, discriminating, 
and progressive interest in the problems of public education. 

SUPPLEMENTARY SUGGESTIONS. 

As the conditions and needs of the educational system have been 
considered, it has become increasingly evident that many of the 
deficiencies in the Baltimore school system have their roots in the 
legal basis of that system. For that reason it has seemed to the com- 
mission that it would not perform its full duty in the premises if it 
failed to point out certain ways in which the legal organization and 
features closely related thereto could be improved to the advantage 
of the entire school system. Accordingly the commission makes the 
following suggestions in addition to its recommendations relating to 
the system of education: 

1. The commission suggests that the board of school commission- 
ers, the board of estimates, and the council give careful consideration 
to the question of providing ways and means whereby sufficient funds 
may be made available to afford support for the schools of Balti- 
more equal in amount per pupil to the prevalent standard for cities 
having a population of 300,000 and over. The object requiring the 



VIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS. 107 

greatest amount of funds is that of salaries of teachers in elementary 
schools. Increases of appropriation for normal, evening, vacation, 
and special schools are also demanded in order to give the school 
system the scope that generally prevails. Expenses for rent should be 
reduced as quickly as possible by the erection of suitable schoolhouses 
owned by the city. 

2. In comparing the department of education as it exists in 
Baltimore with the forms of local government for the conduct of 
schools in other large cities, we at once meet a fundamental dis- 
tinction. Schools in certain large cities are established and regu- 
lated not by the municipal government, but by a corporation 
usually called an independent school district, which has no con- 
nection with the municipal government, save that as a matter of 
convenience the municipality collects the taxes levied by the dis- 
trict. The cities of St. Louis, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indian- 
apolis, and Denver constitute such independent school districts. 
On the other hand, schools are administered under departments of 
the municipal government in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Bal- 
timore, San Francisco, and New Orleans. There seems to be no gen- 
eral tendency toward either one of these forms of organization and 
away from the other, each city continuing on in the same way as 
formerly, modifying certain features of the organization from time to 
time, but not changing the form as a whole. However, it is believed 
that the advantages of independent districts as a class are worthy 
of careful consideration. The comparative advantages of the two 
forms of organization can not be fully presented here. It is evident, 
however, that some of the most important hindrances to the devel- 
opment of the Baltimore schools lie in the limitations that are now 
imposed upon the board of school commissioners by its subordinate 
relationship to the municipal government. 

An independent district should not be substituted for the depart- 
ment unless the election by popular vote from the city as a whole, and 
not by wards, of a small nonpartisan board composed of honest men 
of superior intelligence and efficiency is practically assured. Some 
of the present hindrances can be removed without abohshing the 
department, and no doubt further modification of an institution so 
long established would be more easy, though probably not so effec- 
tual, as the more radical step of putting another form of organiza- 
tion in its stead. 

3. It is the belief of the commission that the city charter might 
with advantage be so modified as to place all matters pertaining to 
the purchase of sites, the erection and repair of buildings, and the 
purchase of equipment and supplies in the board of school commis- 
sioners. In this connection, it is also suggested that the making of 
lump-sum rather than specific appropriations by the council for the 



108 



REPORT ON THE BALTIMORE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 



extension of the school plant would probably lead to greater economy 
and efficiency in this feature of public-school administration. 

It is practically a universal experience that there is frequent fric- 
tion wherever a department of a city government other than the 
education department has charge of the purchase of sites or the erec- 
tion and repair of school buildings. 

The following table will show the practice in all of the 18 cities 
above 300,000 population as regards the purchase of sites, the erection 
and repair of buildings, and the purchase of supplies and equipment. 
It will be observed that in only 4 of these cities are the sites purchased 
and buildings erected by another department of the municipal gov- 
ernment : 



Names of cities. 



Sites purchased 
by- 



Buildings erected 
by- 



Buildings repaired 
by- 



Supplies purchased 
by- 



New York. 



Chicago 

Philadelphia . 



St. Louis. 



Boston 

Cleveland . 

Baltimore. 

Pittsburg. 

Detroit 

Buffalo.... 



San Francisco. 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 



Newark 

New Orleans . 
Washington.. 



Los Angeles. 
Minneapolis. 



Board of educa- 
tion. 
....do 

Board of public 
education. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

School board 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Other depart- 
ments. 

Subdistrict school 
board. 1 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Common council . . 



Board of super- 
visors. 

Board of school di- 
rectors. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 

City council 

Commissioners of 
the District of 
Columbia. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 



Board of educa- 
tion. 
do 

Board of public 
education. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

School board 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Other depart- 
ments. 

Subdistrict school 
board. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Depart m e n t of 
public works. 

Board of public 
works. 

Board of school di- 
rectors. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 

City council 

Commissioners of 
the District of 
Columbia. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 



Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 

Board of public 
education. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

School board 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Other depart- 
ments. 

Subdistrict school 
board. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Depart m e n t of 
public works. 

Board of public 
works. 

Board of school di- 
rectors. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 

Board of directors. 

Commissioners of 
the District of 
Columbia. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

do 



Board of educa- 
tion. 
Do. 

Board of public 
education. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

School board. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Board of school 
coihmissioners. 

Central board of 
education. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Depar t m e n t of 
public instruc- 
tion. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 

Board of school di- 
rectors. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 
Do. 

Board of directors. 

Commissioners of 
the District of 
Columbia. 

Board of educa- 
tion. 
Do. 



1 High-school sites are purchased and buildings are erected by the central board of education. 

4. In our judgment, careful consideration should be given to the 
question whether the charter requirement that the mayor's appoint- 
ments to the board of school commissioners shall be confirmed 
by the second branch of the city council is a desirable provision. 
The present tendency in municipal affairs is toward a more definite 
placing of responsibility. 

Turning to other cities, we find that in no large city is the appoint- 
ment of members of school boards either by the mayor or by judges 
of the court confirmed by another body. The tendency in municipal 
government is to make administration simple and direct, so that 



VIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS. 



109 



each officer may be held accountable and receive his proper pro- 
portion of praise or censure. The following table shows the facts 
concerning method of appointment and composition of school boards 
in all cities in the United States having over 300,000 population: 



School board of— 



Number 
of mem- 
bers. 



Term in 
years. 



Selected by- 



Chosen from— 



New York. . . 

Chicago 

Philadelphia. 

St. Louis 

Boston 

Cleveland 

Baltimore... 



Pittsburg 

Detroit 

Buffalo i 

San Francisco. 

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 



Mayor 

do 

Court of common pleas 

Popular vote 

do 

do 

Mayor and confirmed by second 
branch of city council. 

By local boards 

Popular vote 



Newark 

New Orleans 

Washington, D. C 



Los Angeles. 
Minneapolis . 



20 



Mayor 

Popular vote . 
do 



Mayor 

17 by popular vote, 3 ex officio. . 
Supreme court judges of District 
of Columbia. 

Popular vote 

do 



Boroughs. 
City. 
Wards. 
City. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Districts. 
Wards. 

City. 
Do. 

3 at large, 24 by 
wards. 

City. 

Ward. 

District of Colum- 
bia. 

City. 
Do. 



1 Has no school board proper. The council performs many of the duties usually performed by the board 
of education. 

Every living system of schools will be found to be full of imperfec- 
tions, full of things half done, full of plans and purposes which are 
only by slow degrees finding their way into effective practice. We 
have looked into the Baltimore schools in the spirit of practical men 
who discriminate between the jagged incompleteness of a growing 
concern and the finish and perfection of a completed machine which 
has no life in it. Our suggestions are offered, with all deference, in 
the hope that they may help a little in the effort the city of Baltimore 
has long been making to render its schools as effective an agency as 
possible for the purposes of public education. 



INDEX. 



Administration, sohool, 45; history, legal basis, 

28-33; tendencies during the decade, 23. 
Algebra, instruction, 74, 78. 
Architectural commission, powers under charter 

of 1898, 31. 
Arithmetic, teaching, combinations, 77-78; direc- 
tions to teachers, indorsed by commission, 73; 
(Smith) 73; specified topics, statistics of thir- 
teen cities, 76; "spiral" method, 71-73, (Suz- 
zallo) 72-73. 
Arithmetic and alegebra, minutes per week de- 
voted to, statistics of 12 cities, 74; percentage 
of school time devoted to (18J0-1910-11), statis- 
tics of 8 cities, 74. 
Assistant superintendent of public instruction, 

appointment ordered, 26. 
Attendance, statistics, 92-98. 
Backward pupils, provision for, 10. 
Board of awards, powers under charter of 1898, 
31. 

Board of estimates, powers under charter of 1898 ) 

31. 
Board of school commissioners, established, 24; 
functions just previous to 1900, 29; letter to, 7-8; 
membership increased, 27; political considera- 
tions under old regime, 30; powers fixed by 
law, 26; powers under charter of 1898, 31; 
required to advertise for all purchases of ?50 
and over, 27; resolution regarding employment 
of commission, 16; term changed, 26. 

Board of superintendents, powers under charter 
of 1898, 32. 

Boards of education, opinions regarding organi- 
zation and status, 102-103, 106-109. 

Brown, Dr. E. E., conference with Gen. Lawrason 
Riggs and Mr. George A. Solter, 16; letter of 
transmittal, 5-6; letter to Mr. George A. Solter 
regarding commission, 17-18. 

Charter, city (Mar. 24, 1898), passed, 27. 

Chronological table, history of school system, 
24-27. 

City council , authority in management of schools, 
under act of Jan. 17, 1826, 29; under charter of 
1898, 30; and mayor, authority to establish 
schools, 26. 

City school boards, organization, 103-101. 

City school systems, recent history, 21-23. 

Coeducation, in 15 cities, statistics, 91; status, 
14, 90-91. 

Colored children, separate schools established, 26. 

Commission, for selection of sites, powers under 
charter of 1898, 31. 

Commission, to investigate public school system 
(1880), 26. 

Commission, to study system of education in 
public schools of Baltimore, appointment, or- 
ganization and work, 16-18; limits of study, 
18-19; members and assistants, 6: method of 
study pursued by, 20-21. 

Compulsory attendance, Massachusetts, 22. 

Cooking school, opened, 27. 

Courses of study, criticism, 13-14; elementary 
school, historical summary, 63-64; instructions 



from superintendent's office, 87-88; methods 
employed in making, 64-65; subjects in detail, 
66-91; teachers consulted, 13. 
See also under subjects. 
Creery, W. R., appointed superintendent of 

schools, 26. 
Cubberley, E. P., letter regarding appointment as 

member of commission, 17-18. 
Curriculum. See Courses of study. 
Department of education of Baltimore, compari- 
son with other cities, 108. 
Discipline, school, 101-102; status. 
Drawing instruction, 84. 

Education, trend during first decade of the twen- 
tieth century, 23. 
Elementary schools, expenses, 39; per capita costs 
of total expenses, based on enrollment, com- 
parison between five cities, 41; supervision, 
criticisms, and recommendations, 51; past and 
present conditions, 48-51; training and instruc- 
tion, 48-91; variety in instruction, 10. 
English-German school, established, 26. 
English language, instruction, 66-71. 
Enrollment, statistics, 93-100. 
Evening schools, opened, 27. 
Examinations, promotional, 12. 
Expenditures, schools, 8-9. 
Expenses, schools, 43; unit costs, 41. 
Finance, questions of, 105. 
Free library, established, 26. 
Funds, school, suggestions regarding Baltimore, 

107-108. 
General revenues, total receipts from, 37. 
Geography, teaching, 78-82; distribution of per- 
centages of school time, 81; percentage of school 
time devoted to, statistics of eight cities, 81. 
Geometry, teaching, 78. 
Government school. See Discipline school. 
Grammar, instruction, adverse criticism, 14; year 
of course in which study is begun, statistics of 
13 cities, 68. 
Group system of supervision, introduced, 27; rec- 
ommendations regarding, 10-11. 
Group teaching, and individual instruction, 89-90. 

See also Sectional teaching. 
Health of pupils, 100-101. 
History, teaching, 83-84. 
Home study, 91. 
Improvement, school system, 9. 
Individual instruction and group teaching, 89-90. 
Industrial education, conditions, 14; demand for, 
23; instruction, 86-87. 
See also Manual training. 
Inspector of buildings, powers under charter of 

1898, 31. 
Instruction, conduct of, 87-88; variety, elemen- 
tary schools, 10. 
Kendall, C. N., letter regarding appointment as 

member of commission, 17-18. 
Latrobe commission, appointed, 26. 
Letter of transmittal, 5-6. 

M'Jilton, J. N., appointed superintendent of 
schools, 25. 

Ill 



112 



INDEX. 



Manual training, centers established, 27; instruc- 
tion, 86-87; introduction into American schools 
22; introduction into public-school system, 14 
See also Industrial education. 

Manual training school, organized, 26. 

Manufacturing, statistics (1905), 28. 

Massachusetts, compulsory attendance, 22. 

Mathematics, teaching, 71-78. 

Maxwell, W. H., and sectional teaching, 10. 

Mayor, duties under charter of 1898, 31; member 
ex officio of school board, 27. 

Mayor and city council, authority to establish 
schools, 26; and board of school comm ssioners, 
relative powers regarding schools, 26. 

Medical inspection of schools, statistics, 101. 

Method of study of commission, 20-21. 

Methods of teaching, 88. 

Nature study, instruction, 82. 

Normal, evening, vacation, and special schools, 
expenses, 39. 

Normal training, provisions for, 13. 
See also Teachers, training. 

Occupations of inhabitants, number engaged in 
the principal (1900), 27; 10 years of age and over 
(1900), 27. 

Organization under charter of 1898, 8. 

Parents and schools, 107. 

Penmanship, instruction, 69. 

Physiology and hygiene, instruction, 84-86. 

Political entanglements, danger, 9. 

Politics, partisan, effect on school system, 8. 

Population of Baltimore (1910), white 27; col- 
ored, 27. 

Preparatory classes, best features of Baltimore 
system, 10; introduced, 27. 

Promotional examinations, 12, 57-59, 61-62. 

Property, assessed valuation of, subject to gen- 
eral property tax (1908), 28. 

Public schools, establishment, 24; expenses, 34-37. 

Pupils, health, 100-101; progress of, through the 
course, 46. 

"Quincy methods," introduction into schools, 
22-23. 

Reading, teaching, 68-69. 

Recitations, time allotment, 88. 

Revenue, school, 38. 

Riggs, General Lawrasou, conference with Dr. 
E. E. Brown, 16. 

Salaries, teachers. See teachers' salaries. 

Schedules of work, teachers, 65. 

School activities, widening of range, 23. 

School boards, method of appointment and com- 
position in large cities, 110. 

School commissioners. See Board of school com- 
missioners. 

School expenses, total, 33. 

Schoolhouses, condition, 14-15, 92. 

School system, administration, 45; comparison 
with other cities, 21; criticisms, 20-21; danger 
of political entanglements, 9; expenditures, 9; 
expenses in detail, 39; financial support, 33; 
history, 24-27; improvement, 9; limits of study 
of the commission, 18-19; net result of inquiry, 
8-9; observation of actual work, 20-21; organi- 
zation, 105; partisan politics, effect, 8; scope, 
statistics, 44. 



Secondary schools, expenses, 39, 43. 

Secretary, board of school commissioners, duties, 

33. 
Sectional teaching, 10, 88; criticisms, 88-90; and 

Superintendent W. H. Maxwell, 10. 
Shepherd, H. E., appointed superintendent of 

schools, 26. 
Sites for schools, practice in eighteen cities, 109. 
Smith, D. S., on teaching arithmetic, 73. 
Solter, George A., conference with Dr. E. E. 
Brown, 16; letter to Dr. E. E. Brown, regarding 
commission, 16-17. 
Spelling, teaching, 69-71; practice in certain cities, 

70. 
"Spiral method," arithmetic, 71-73; (Suzzallo) 72- 

73. 
Subjects, old and new, percentage of school time 

devoted to, 66. 
Subsidiary topics, 92-102. 
Summary of report, 8-15. 

Superintendent of public instruction, appoint- 
ment, 25. 
Superintendent of supplies, appointment, 26. 
Supervision, schools, conditions of the past, 48- 
49; comparison with other cities, 10; criticism, 
51-53; "horizontal" divisions, 11; larger provi- 
sion desirable, 10; present policy and practice, 
49-51; recommendations, 53-54; system, 105-106; 
tendency during the decade, 23; "vertical" 
divisions, 10. 
Supervisor of school buildings, powers under 

charter of 1898, 32. 
Supervisory officers, insufficient corps of, 11. 
Supplies, superintendent of, appointment, 26. 
Suzzallo, Henry, on "spiral method" of teaching 

arithmetic, 72-73. 
System of education. See School system. 
Taxation, assessed valuation and rate (1908), 28. 
Teachers, admission to eligible list, 57; courses 
of study, 13; colored, 13; training school, 
59; efficiency, 11-12; eligible list, 60; promo- 
tional examinations, 57-59, 61-62; ratio of, to 
supervising officers in cities of 300,000 popula- 
tion (1910), 51; salaries, 12; ordinance of June 
12, 1890, 27; per capita cost, based on enroll- 
ment, comparison between five cities, 42; sta- 
tistics of nine cities, 60; scale too low, 12; sched- 
ules of work, allotments in several grades, 
65-66; tenure of office, 11; training, 55-63, 
106-107; criticisms and recommendations, 
59-62; training school, adequate housing and 
equipment recommended, 12; established, 27. 
Teaching, character of, opinion, 62-63. 
Training school for teachers, established, 27. 

See also Teachers, training school. 
Truants, habitual, provision for, 10. 
Unit costs, 41. 
United States Bureau of education, and work of 

commission. 
Van Sickle, J. H., appointed superintendent of 

schools, 27. 
Vocational training, demand for, 23. 
Wise, H. A., appointed superintendent of schools, 
26. 



o 






BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

(Continued from page 2 of cover.) 
19 09. 

No. 1. Facilities for study and research in the offices of the U. S. Government at 

Washington. By Arthur Twining Hadley, President of Yale University, pp. 73. 
No. 2. Admission of Chinese students to American universities. By John Fryer, 

Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature, University of California, pp. 221. 
No. 3. Daily meals of school children. By Caroline L. Hunt. pp. 62. 
No. 4. The teaching staff of secondary schools in the United States: Amount of 

education, length of experience, salaries. By Edward L. Thorndike. pp. 60. 
No. 5. Statistics of public, society, and school libraries having 5,000 volumes and 

over in 1908. pp. 215. 
No. 6. Instruction in the fine and manual arts in the United States. A statistical 

monograph. By Henry Turner Bailey, editor of the School Arts Book. pp. 184. 
No. 7. Index to the Reports of the Commissioner of Education, 1867-1907. pp. 103. 
No. 8. A teacher's professional library. ClassifiecLlist of one hundred titles, pp. 14. 
No. 9. Bibliography of education for 1908-9. pp. 334. 
No. 10. Education for efficiency in railway service. By J. Shirley Eaton, formerly 

Statistician Lehigh Valley Railroad, pp.159. 
No. 11. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education 

partially supported by the State, 1908-9. pp. 15. 

1910. 

No. 1. The movement for reform in the teaching of religion in the public schools 

of Saxony. By Arley Barthlow Show, Professor of Medieval History, Leland 

Stanford Junior University, p. 45. 
No. 2. State school systems: III. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to 

public education, October 1, 1908, to October 1, 1909. By Edward C. Elliott, 

Professor of Education in the University of Wisconsin, pp. 305. 
No. 3. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1867-1910. 

pp. 55. 
No. 4. The biological stations of Europe. By Charles Atwood Kofoid. pp.360. 
No. 5. American schoolhouses. By Fletcher B. Dresslar, Professor of Philosophy and 

Education in the University of Alabama. 
No. 6. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education 

partially supported by the State, 1909-10. pp. 29. 

1911. 

No. 1. Bibliography of science teaching. Compiled by a committee of the American 
Federation of Teachers of the Mathematical and the Natural Sciences, pp. 27. 

No. 2. Opportunities for graduate work in agriculture in the United States, pp. 16. 

No. 3. Agencies for the improvement of teachers in service. By William C. Ruediger, 
Professor of Educational Psychology, Teachers College, The George Washington 
University, Washington, D. C. 



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